Being a Councillor Workshop

An excellent workshop was organised by East Yorkshire CLP Women's Officer today in Driffield.  My presentation:

Event – CLP    Life as a Councillor

To become a councillor of a town or parish council or of East Riding of Yorkshire Council you must:

• be 18 years of age or over and on the electoral register of the local authority that you wish to stand for
• have worked in the area for the past 12 months or more
• have occupied land in the area, either as an owner or tenant, for 12 months or more.

To assess whether you fit the criteria to become a councillor, please refer to the Local Government Act 1972, which outlines the qualification details in full.

Wards

The East Riding is divided into 26 wards, each of which is represented by one, two or three elected councillors. These councillors form part of East Riding of Yorkshire Council and make decisions for the whole of the East Riding.

Parishes

Each ward is divided up into a number of parishes. Each parish has a parish or town council which is made up of a number of parish councillors who represent the views of their parish and made local decisions.

Councillors act as the link between the public and the council they are elected to serve. Much of a councillor’s time is spent dealing with any problems and questions from their local community. Councillors play an important role in planning, running, monitoring, and developing council business.

Councillors work to improve the quality of life for people within their area and make decisions about local issues. They have to decide what is in the public interest among a range of conflicting issues and views. Councillors usually represent a political party, however, they can be independent. All councillors represent all the citizens in their ward or parish, not just the people who voted for them.

The full council (a meeting of all ward councillors) is the strategic body, responsible for all decisions and oversees all of the work of the council, more information on the council page.

The day to day decision making is undertaken by a number of committees made up of a number of ward councillors. The Cabinet makes most of the day-to-day decisions whilst other committees have specific decision making powers for things such as planning applications, taxi licenses, licensed premises and education appeals. Decisions are therefore made by a whole committee of elected councillors. No individual councillor has any decision making authority.

To view information on specific individual committees please visit the committees page.

 There are 67 Councillors

So what do I do?

Committees/representation

Licensing 2003 Committee and Hearings Objections and Police Reviews (3 Councillors 2 Tories and 1 other) main Committee every 3 months and Hearings when needed

Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny sub Committee once a month except for recess

Eastern Area Planning – every 3 weeks and includes Chairs Brief and site visits

Full Council once a month

Labour Group meetings to discuss questions and motions to Full Council

Budget Briefs

Review Panels

Humberside Fire Authority – meetings once a month and a members day once a month + Appeals Committee

Local Authority Governor Hilderthorp Primary School

Foundation Trustee of Bridlington School as a Town Councillor Representative

Chamber of Commerce as a Ward Council – meetings once a quarter

Parker Home Trust – 2 Tories and myself

Ward Work

Parking

Housing

Dog  Poo

Antisocial behaviour

Fly tipping

Further Information to help you become a Councillor

https://labour.org.uk/members/jo-cox-women-leadership/#apply

http://www.lwn.org.uk/

Women make up half of Labour’s membership, but are absent from leadership positions across our party. It’s time to deliver the rule change and culture change we need to ensure Labour women can lead.

Although women make up just under half of Labour’s membership and 43% of Labour MPs, they are just 30% of CLP Chairs, 16% of Labour council leaders, and 0% of Labour’s leadership team. To tackle this leadership gap, Labour must urgently change its rules and its culture. That is why LWN is:

- Calling on our leader to implement his #leadforwomen promises to us. These include rule changes to ensure 50:50 representation on every party committee (including the shadow cabinet), continued support for positive action, the publication of diversity data, and, a guaranteed place for a woman in Labour’s leadership team the next time there are elections.

- Asking all Labour members to pledge to share their power by taking the #powerpledge. By taking the pledge, party members can help improve our party from the grassroots up.

- Running training for Labour women across the UK. From our local workshops, to our local government leadership training, we are playing our part to ensure all Labour women are equipped with the skills they need.

Foundation Day

Our Foundation Day is ideal for women who may want to think about going into public life, but aren't yet ready for our residential Aspiring Candidates' course.

Because we want to make sure every woman can benefit from our training, we have developed our Foundation Day to cover all the basics and provide an excellent grounding for women at all stages of political development.

Delivered to the same gold-standard as our Parliamentary training, the Foundation Day will cover;

policy-making and party structures;

selection procedures and how they work;

political life planning and development. 

Places on each day are limited and all our volunteer trainers are knowledgeable and experienced.

To apply, you need to have been a member of the Labour Party for at least one year (although this is waivable at LWN 's discretion), and be or become a member of LWN. You can find out more about us here, or go straight to the joining page here.

This course is heavily subsidised by LWN members, which means that we are able to keep the fee down to just £20.  This needs to be paid at least 48 hours before the day of the course.  

Foundation Days will run from 10.00 am to 5pm, and are planned for the following locations:  

 Saturday, 4 November 2017 - London

Saturday, 11 November 2017 - Manchester

Saturday, 13 January, 2018 - Sheffield

Saturday, 3 March 2018 - Bristol

To apply, click here and complete the application form.

Please note that all our training courses are over subscribed, so a completed application form does not guarantee a place. 

Complete the Foundation Day application form here.