Of course, one way to ensure things get done (if you’re fed up of seeing local litter etc) is to become a local councillor yourself. Lots do wonderful work, but some don’t. As seen by many parks strewns with litter for months or even years, despite councils having power to act with Litter Abatement Orders.
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.
If planting green spaces, learn how to make gardens safe for pets. If planting trees, know of trees to avoid near horses (including yew, oak and sycamore). Cordon off trees affected by oak processionary moths (also from livestock). These should be reported to Treealert.
How Your Local (confusing) Councils Work
Between them, councils run around 800 services across England. It’s complicated as different services are run by different councils:
Councillors have a lot more power than people think. As well as responding to casework, they also attend meetings to vote on important matters. It’s up to you which kind of council you decide to stand for:
- 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.
Report Local Issues to ‘Fix My Street’
FixMyStreet is a fantastic website where you can upload (including photos) reports of litter, fly-tipping, broken glass, broken street lamps and broken paving labs, and anything else that is blighting your beautiful town or village.
Created by techy experts, the reports get sent straight to your council and you are then notified of updates. If many people report the same issues (which are made public), things tend to get fixed pretty quickly. The open-source software means anyone worldwide can use their knowledge to create a similar site.
Just enter your nearest postcode, locate the problem on a map, enter the details and send it off, then they’ll email to the council on your behalf. Last month, over 31,000 problems were fixed!
You can also download free goodie packs, to print our posters to let people in your community know about the site, and widgets that you can put on your local website or blog.
Reporting broken street lights is really important. Not just because it wastes public funds, but because it causes light pollution, which means birds and other mammals wake up at the wrong times (birds are now waking up at midnight to start singing, thinking it’s morning).
This in turn affects migration and breeding, so reporting broken street lights is one of the best way to help our garden birds. Councils should also use wildlife-friendly lighting (with an orange hue, rather than white or blue)
How Visionary Councillors Help Communities
If you are a local councillor, you could make a real difference to help reduce complaints. Council staff spend a lot of time and money responding to complaints, yet with visionary councillors, these could be prevented in the first place.
Visionary councillors would focus on:
- Creating litter-free towns
- Install wildlife-friendly lighting
- Stop birds flying into windows
- Install dog poop stations
- Restoring dog wardens
- Help homeless people and dogs
- Restore good public bus transport
- Make roads safer for wildlife
- Help save independent shops
- Improve and save libraries
- Restore and protect heritage buildings
- Make areas safer for women
- Create healthier town planning
- Improve town accessibility
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 have missed out the Winter Fuel Allowance. So those now just above Pension Credit limit, won’t lose out.
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 and teach yoga etc.
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.
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
