THE future of Garelochhead Community Council has been left in doubt after a by-election failed to attract any candidates.

The organisation's former convener Watson Robinson, vice-convener Martin Croft, and treasurer Carole Spencer all stood down at an AGM in June.

Some members had also resigned and a by-election was called so that the community council could become quorate once again.

READ MORE: Garelochhead community council fears for its future after office bearers resign

However, the date for nominations has since passed and no one put their name forward.

Argyll and Bute Council have confirmed that they will now communicate with community councillors to evaluate the level of interest, but hope to see the village body brought back.

In his final report as convener, Mr Robinson said that support and back-up from the local authority had ‘fallen well short’.

He said: "Our community council is definitely in need of new enthusiastic residents to push the community council forward.

“This, however, requires buy-in by our local authority, who, in my opinion, fall well short in the way of support and back-up.

“Community councillors should be recognised more, listened to more, and assisted more, and also protected more when it comes to malicious complaints.

“Instead, we find ourselves operating outside the council walls, with little in the way of a direct or meaningful communication line to get our residents’ feelings across.

“This, in turn, leads to the feeling that community councils are largely ineffective. In order for residents to feel that the community council platform can work, residents would need to see real change.

“For real change to take place, local authorities would need to open those council gates and start supporting community councillors and make them feel part of the team."

At the last full community council election, in October 2022, six people were validly nominated to serve on Garelochhead Community Council and were therefore elected without a contest.

Besides Mr Robinson, Mr Croft and Ms Spencer, the others were Cara Bentley, Fergus Madigan and David Norton.

An Argyll and Bute council spokesperson said: “Sadly, no candidates came forward to stand for Garelochhead Community Council and the council will liaise with the current community councillors to look at the level of community interest to bring the community council back to being quorate.

“We value the work of all 56 of our community councils and invest time and effort in operating the election processes and the governance framework for them to operate in, helping to ensure they are available across Argyll and Bute to support their communities.

"We hope to see Garelochhead re-established in the future.”