How Visionary Councillors Shape Our Communities
To become a councillor is pretty simple if you’re organised, passionate and have some time on your hands. You don’t receive a salary but can claim expenses (including for childcare and carers, if needed). And you don’t have to belong to a political party, you can be independent if preferred.
No matter who dropped it, it’s the council’s responsibility to remove litter on public land (or serve litter abatement orders on private land). Report this and other issues to Fix My Street.
If planting green spaces, read up on pet-friendly gardens and wildlife-friendly gardens. If planting trees, know of trees to avoid near horses (including yew, oak and sycamore).
How Your Local (confusing) Councils Work
Between them, councils run around 800 services across England. At time of writing, several local elections are being postpones, due to the councils being merged, to make things simpler. But it’s likely that parish councils will remain as is.
- County councils cover education, transport, planning, fire/safety, social care, libraries, refuse and trading standards.
- District/city councils cover rubbish/recycling, Council tax & planning
- Parish (village) councils cover allotments, public clocks, bus shelters, community centres, play areas, neighbour planning and grants for local charities). They can also fine people for litter, graffiti, fly-posting and not picking up dog poop.
The National Association for Local Councils has good information. The laws to become a councillor are pretty simple, and depending on the council size, your councils could be responsible for:
- Allotments
- Car parks
- Celebrations
- Community buses
- Community & leisure Centres
- Litter bins
- Parks & open spaces
- Public toilets
- Street lights
- Suitable housing
- Solar panels
- Town planning
- Police & Health services
Write to Them is an open source website (meaning other countries can use the software to create something similar) that lets you know your local or national MP, then write to them.
Councillors Are Very, Very Important!
Councils can create good or bad decisions that affect people’s lives. Recently, some councils have actually used funds to help ‘top up’ those in limbo, who missed out on the Winter Fuel Allowance.
If you’ve ever read Paul Kingsnorth’s book Real England, you’ll know about the Norfolk town of Sheringham, and its gigantic multi-year battle between local people and a Tesco superstore (in a town filled with independent shops).
After years of legal wrangling, it got to crunch time, when a local eco entrepreneur suddenly ‘saved the day’ by offering to create a locally-owned non-profit supermarket, with space above for people to learn cooking.
Yet the council voted it down, and gave Tesco the contract. Despite five times more letters of opposition than support for the store.
Years later, many indie shops have gone to the wall, and (although the supermarket funded a new fire station to make way for the one it demolished to build a supermarket) – what it gave was lost, at a far greater price.
People need fire stations and local food shops. They don’t ‘need’ factory-farmed bacon and take-a-break magazines.
The battle in Sheringham has demonstrated the determination of anti-supermarket activists across the country but has also showed Tesco’s refusal to bow to local opposition. Council planners recorded 516 letters of opposition and 195 letters of support for the store.
Recently the government overruled the local council decision to refuse a pizza chain, and one is now set to open in Sheringham, a town with around 40 local food shops.
In Northern England, some campaigners took a battered mattress around in a van, dumped it on people’s doors and then took photos, and sent them into the council to complain, then won the election! Around the time of the MP expenses scandal, one person was asking what should be done. He simply replied ‘Give us better politicians’. 101 Ways to Win an Election
