AT least a dozen residents turned up to the first meeting of the new Saltcoats Community Council recently. 

The meeting in the Argyle Centre was a huge success and now organisers want to encourage members of the public to get involved and elect their new community councillors.

Gary Parker, who helped bring Saltcoats Community Council together, said: “We had 12-14 attending, all who were happy to put themselves forward and we are likely to have a few of the seniors from Auchenharvie at the next one too. We had the head teacher from Auchenharvie Academy attend who hopes to inject some much needed youth into proceedings and, as you can imagine, this will kick-start some social media activity. 

“However, we do recognise that older people in Saltcoats also want to make a difference and we will be looking to set up some more conventional channels to allow them to participate. For now we just want people who would like to improve Saltcoats to turn up and offer ideas and get involved in discussions. 

“Once the positions are filled (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, etc) we can look at things like car pooling to help people get to the meetings who would otherwise be isolated. It’s a light hearted group that we have so far but everyone involved is determined to make a difference so we do think that people will have fun.”

Saltcoats Community Council will meet next on Tuesday, April 4 at the Argyle Centre.

The election will be held on Thursday, April 13 at 7pm in Saltcoats Town Hall. Anyone wishing to stand must submit a nomination form by Thursday, April 6 at 12pm.