Could you become a councillor?
Becoming a councillor is an extremely rewarding experience. It gives you the opportunity to help your local community and be part of a dedicated team providing key services for your area. Being a councillor is a great way to gain political experience and useful skills in public speaking, debating and problem solving.
New councillors are good news. They mean fresh ideas and fresh enthusiasm, and that will be good for your council.
To be eligible you must be:
- A British subject or a citizen of the Irish Republic or the EU and resident in the UK.
- At least eighteen years old on the day you are nominated.
- Either on the electoral register for the council area in which you are seeking election, or have lived or worked in that council area for at least the last twelve months.
Be a Councillor Project
The CCA works closely with the Be a Councillor Project run by the Local Government Association. It aims to celebrate the important work which councillors do and encourage new candidates from a wider talent pool to come forward. This will ensure that councils not only reflect their electorate in terms of gender, age or ethnicity, but attracts people with different personal and professional experiences, raising the quality of candidates and therefore the quality of councillors.
For more information, please visit www.beacouncillor.org.uk
Access to Elected Office Fund
The Access to Elected Office Fund offers individual grants of between £250 and £20,000 to disabled people who want to be selected as candidates for an election, or who are standing for election.
This fund is for additional disability-related costs that you have to pay as part of standing for an election. It is not for general costs that any election candidate needs to meet such as campaigning costs (like leaflets). It also does not cover general living costs.
To check whether you are eligible to apply for the fund and for more information please visit www.access-to-elected-office-fund.org.uk or download the leaflet here.
