FOR the second month running Innerleithen and District Community Council (IDCC) struggled to hold its regular meeting.

On Monday evening just two elected members, George Brown and Colin Williams, and two co-opted members, Sharon Guest and Max Volino, attended.

The three Tweeddale East councillors, former IDCC chairman Marshall Douglas, Robin Tatler and Julie Pirone and police officer PC Viv Carsley also joined the meeting.

The problems started last September when two members left.

And last month a meeting was cancelled with three resignations, including the chairman and secretary.

To be quorate requires four elected members and it was impossible to discuss items on the agenda.

Community councils are seen as the first rung of local “power” and as Mr Douglas acknowledges IDCC was one of his stepping stones to becoming a councillor.

Ms Pirone said: “I definitely think you need to ask people to join and often when it comes to the last gasp volunteers should turn up.

“Communities which don’t have a community council fail to get things done locally and can often miss out on funding streams.”

IDCC has never been busier.

In the past year it has hosted talks from two different wind farm developers, the Caerlee Mill Bike Innovation Centre; vandalism has been on the agenda and issues such as the playpark have been raised.

It was pointed out that Peebles and District Community Council currently has one member who is a high school pupil as the lower age limit is 16.

PC Carsley said: “It is a really good experience for a young person to volunteer at a community council and is great for their Curriculum Vitae.”

Mr Douglas said that there used to be a couple of people from Cardrona on IDCC and that perhaps someone from its residents’ association could be invited to join.

There was further discussion of what is happening to IDCC emails and it was agreed that all the current members should have password access to the inbox.

Mr Douglas said that he still has admin authority for IDCC’s Facebook page as he initially set it up.

It was also agreed to try to return meetings to the first week of the month and to hold a recruitment session, possibly on Saturday, May 18.