Bridgend Council is holding an online meeting this evening for anyone interested in standing for office in next year’s local elections.
They’ve also produced a short video featuring Cllr. Amanda Williams (Ind, Coity) and Cabinet Member for Wellbeing & Future Generations, Cllr. Dhanisha Patel (Lab, Ogmore Vale) discussing their role.
Many councils – at both local authority and community council level – often struggle to find candidates, leading to a large number of uncontested seats.
Additionally, the role of councillor has often been seen as being solely for men and women of retirement or near-retirement age. As a result, councils are often not fully representative of their communities.
There’s long been a drive to encourage people from under-represented groups to stand, including the under-40s, women, the disabled and people from backgrounds other than white.
Local government laws in Wales have recently changed to make standing for office more attractive and improve diversity.
Some of the new measures include:
- putting virtual attendance at meetings on a permanent footing, meaning councillors will be able to take part and vote at meetings whilst being away from the council chamber (i.e. if they have caring or work responsibilities).
- allowing job-sharing at Cabinet-level and for Cabinet members to appoint assistants to shadow them.
- granting councillors family leave.
There’s also a fund for disabled candidates, administered by Disability Wales, to help with any additional costs that might otherwise prevent a disabled person from putting their names forward for election.
The session takes place tonight (25th November 2021) at 18:30 via Microsoft Teams and is said to last for one hour. Full details on how to take part and what will be discussed are available here.
