How much time is involved?

Lets assume you have been elected. Before you can act as a councillor you must formally accept office and sign up to a national Code of Conduct which has been designed to ensure that anybody holding a public office acts impartially and without financial impropriety.

It is impossible to answer the question of how much time is involved, because all councils are different. For example, a parish council must hold at least an annual meeting and three other meetings per year. In a quiet rural area there might not be a need to hold many more meetings than this. In other areas, especially in the urban areas, the only way a busy council could get through all of its work is to break it down into committees, meeting probably every three or four weeks.

As well as the formal meetings, councillors may have a lot of contact with their electorate, either attending local meetings or surgeries, or listening to their complaints and making enquiries on their behalf. A good way to find out how things work at the council for which you are thinking of standing is to contact the clerk and ask a few questions.