It is not being proposed by Helensburgh Community Council that Community Councils be the ultimate and sole arbiters of planning applications; rather that the option should exist for a number of community councillors with full voting powers to become members of a local authority planning committee for planning applications within their Community Council area. The statutory right to be ignored. If Community Councils were to become part of the actual decision-taking process (as suggested above), and if this were to lead to the removal of their role as statutory consultees, our view (in contrast to the view of the Scottish Government in their submission) is that it would not "in fact reduce [the] opportunity for community participation", simply because as matters currently stand Community Council views may too often be ignored.
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