Whats involved in being a councillor?
How much time is involved in being a councillor?
The time commitment will depend on your role within the council, the number of
duties you decide to take on and the demands of your constituents but the role can be done flexibly around employment, studying, caring, and other voluntary commitments. It could range from a few hours each week to a few hours each day at busier times but you should attend every committee to which you have been appointed as well as full Council meetings
Either way, your time as a councillor will be split between your two key responsibilities; your ward and the council.
While much of the day-to-day work of a councillor takes place outside of formal meetings, you will be required to attend some council meetings to:
- represent community views, needs and ideas
- help create strategies, policies and plans
- make decisions and/or review decisions taken.
|
Ward Duties |
Council Duties |
|---|---|
|
Dealing with queries and complaints from residents and working with council officers to resolve complaints |
Help form policy |
|
Explaining Council policy and processes |
Help develop the council’s budget and agree the level of Council Tax |
|
Holding surgeries for local residents |
Make or scrutinise decisions |
|
Representing your Ward at meetings (for example. where decisions are being made which directly affect your local area, such as Planning Application) |
Attendance at Council meetings and reading associated papers |
|
Attending Parish Council meetings within your Ward if applicable |
Representing the Council on outside |
What you may want to consider
These are just a few of the considerations you will need to make before you take on the responsibility of a councillor.
- You work for the people of your ward but you work for them in conjunction with the council and its officers.
- How your role as a councillor will impact on any family and personal relationships – you will need their support and understanding as you may be spending a lot of your spare time on council business.
- You will be a member of at least one committee or be on the Cabinet. Nearly all committee meetings are held in the day Your meetings/commitments may not be evenly spread out over the cycle so some weeks you may be out at more times than others.
- If you are elected as a chair, spokesperson or member of the Cabinet, the role can be very demanding as you will take responsibility for making decisions that affect the lives of the people of Coventry.
- The people you represent will look to you for help in dealing with their problems. You are likely to receive a lot of post, emails and telephone calls, and not every caller will telephone at what you might think is a reasonable hour!
- Most councillors hold at least one drop in surgery each month, some hold two or even three surgeries in this period. You may spend some of your time visiting constituents at their homes, or at the council offices, and you may also have to meet with officers of the council to help you with any issues.
- There are approximately 10 Full Council meetings a year which are held on a Tuesday, these are formal meetings that you will be expected to attend. Most meetings start at 2.00pm and can last up to three hours, and sometimes longer.
- For most of the meetings you attend there will be agendas and reports that you will need to read beforehand. These can be quite detailed and take time to read and understand.
Member of a political party?
There will be additional calls on your time to attend political group meetings. Political groups require their members to attend group meetings in advance of council meetings and possibly training events/seminars organised by the political party.