Create a Council Networking Event
SPONSORED BY BIG LOTTERY FUND
ABOUT
Seeking to empower your community? Do you want to empower your community and improve your local area? Did you know that setting up a new local parish or town council is one of the best ways to achieve this?
To help communities regain control, NALC and Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Association of Local Councils have announced that they will be hosting an event at NALC’s Annual Conference to provide guidance to communities, who are interested in creating a local council to represent the interests of the people living in their area.
Why is having a local council important?
Local councils are the first tier of government in England and are placed at the very heart of the local community, giving them a voice and helping people feel more involved in the decisions that affect them. Local councils are instrumental in giving power back to the people, providing communities with the opportunity to take control of decisions made in their local area, around planning and neighbourhood plans, how local services are run and how public assets should be looked after.
What makes local councils different to other electable bodies is that councillors on local councils must be elected by the community they serve and are only eligible to be elected if they themselves are a member of the community the local council is representing. This gives local councils that ‘ultra-localism’ feel that other tiers of government don’t have.
Can any area have a local council?
In short, yes - there are approximately 10,000 local councils across England, which are made up of 80,000 councillors. At the moment, local councils only cover a third of England’s population and NALC thinks it is vital that this figure increases to give everyone the opportunity to have a say on what happens in their area.
How can I establish a local council to represent my area?
To establish a local council, you need to trigger a Community Governance Review. A Community Governance Review can be triggered either by the principal authority themselves or by the community, through the submission of a petition. To help communities understand the rules and regulations of establishing a local council, NALC has provided guidance and handy tips on their website, which you can view here.
To further their support to communities, NALC will be running a free event, which aims to inform campaign groups how they can launch a local council. At the event, attendees will hear about a number of communities’ campaigns to establish a local council, the issues they faced and how they overcome them. Attendees will also hear from newly created councils, groups that are currently going through the process of creating a council and views from a principle authority on what local councils have provided for their community.
NALC are urging members of campaign groups, local trusts and civic societies, who are interested in establishing a local council to attend.
Importantly, it is a free session and you can attend the rest of the NALC Annual Conference programme on the second day for free as well. If that is not a great incentive as it is, we will also pay reasonable travel and subsistence costs.
To find out more about this session, please contact Chris Borg, or visit NALC’s Create a Council campaign webpage
The time is now to give your community a voice.
Find out more about NALC’s Annual Conference and Exhibition 2017
LOCATION
Double Tree by Hilton Hotel (Home of MK Dons Football Club)
Stadium Way
West Bletchley
Milton Keynes
MK1 1ST