Beyond Politics: Visionary Councillors Shape Our Places
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.
People need fire stations and local food shops. They don’t ‘need’ factory-farmed bacon and take-a-break magazines.
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
Why Have Councils (if governments override them?)
A shocking story has just been announced, which has wide implications for council democracy nationwide. But first, a little background:
The town of Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast has just refused planning permission for a Domino’s pizza to be there, by both local people and the council. But the government’s national planning department has overriden it, so now there could be plastic pots littered everywhere and late night noise.
Sheringham already has over 40 independent food outlets, so no more are needed, period.
So even if it’s just a minority and tourists who use it, the town is going to have more indie outlets go out of business, and lots more litter to clean up (paid for by their council tax presumably).
The world has gone made. Hopefully locals (unlike what happened with Tesco) will do a mass boycott. The argument for Tesco was that the town needed a place to buy affordable food. But Dominoes Pizza (a whopping £16 for a bit of dough and a few toppings) is not a necessity. So hopefully the outcome this time will be different.
