1.7 Volunteering as a Parish Councillor
If you are interested in becoming a Parish Councillor, you become someone your community will look to for help, guidance and support – a community leader with the ability to influence decisions for the benefit of the local community.
Seeing your community change for the better, as a result of decisions you have helped to make, is something that can give you a real sense of achievement and pride.
To be eligible to be a Parish Councillor, you must:-
- be a UK or Commonwealth citizen
- be a citizen of the Republic of Ireland
- be a citizen of another Member state of the European Union
- be at least 18 years old
- be an elector of the parish
- for the whole of the previous 12 months have occupied (as owner or tenant) land or other premises in the parish
- for the whole of the previous 12 months lived in the parish or within three miles of the parish boundary.
If you do become a parish councillor you will have to sign up to the Parish Council's Code of Conduct. Braughing Parish Council meets once a month, to which members of the public are also invited. Once elected, parish councillors sit on the council for a maximum of four years. If they then want to stay in the post they can stand for re-election. It doesn’t mean that you have to stay for four years, if you find it’s not for you or you can no longer meet the commitment you can stand down.
The best way to find out what it’s like to be a parish councillor is to talk to someone who’s doing it now. Go along to a parish council meeting, speak to one of the councillors and find out what they think of the job.
Please check the Parish Council section on this website here>>> which provides information on elections, code of conduct, meeting minutes etc. For more information please email the Clerk here>>> or alternatively contact Electoral Services and request this information.
It is also recommended that you read The Good Councillor’s Guide here>>>