Developing cabinet members for your ward

The local councillor should be the fundamental building block of representative democracy and unless these foundations are strong then the whole edifice can collapse. Therefore, the role of the councillor should be seen as an opportunity to become an expert on and champion of the issues in a particular area.

We believe that there is no such thing as being a backbencher - every member of a council has an executive job within their own wards and districts, and the fact they are directly elected gives them a unique responsibility to the community.

This means every council and Leader needs to champion and devolve responsibility as much as possible to every councillor in the form of area committees, devolved budgets and local partnership engagement.