In Warwick District the Green Party has 3 County Councillors, 8 District Councillors (see above) and 15 Town Councillors. We are the largest group on Kenilworth Town Council.
Standing to be a Councillor with the Green Party is about empowering you to do the things in the community that you care about.
Being a Councillor gives you influence and opens doors to meet people and get things done. Some of the first questions we would want to ask you is ‘what are you interested in and passionate about?’ and ‘what do you want to see change?’ and ‘how can we help you make that happen?
We’re looking for people with a wide range of skills and experiences to stand to become a Councillor. You don’t have to fit a particular mould to join the team. The Green Party is about changing politics for the better and we need a whole mixture of people to do that.
Some things that people have done as Green Party councillors
Read about Councillors taking action in Warwick District
Here are some frequently asked questions (with answers)
What are the essentials?Expand
You need to:
- Care about your area and want to change things for the better
- Be willing to communicate with residents about local issues.
E.g. emailing or meeting a resident to talk about a particular community issue in a park or around a school. People normally start by working in pairs with another more experienced Councillor. - Be available to attend between 1 and 2 formal meetings a month (18 a year). These are normally in the early evening.
- Be willing to work on one community issue of interest (this could be anything that you are passionate about)
What is the role of a Councillor?Expand
The role revolves around 3 areas:
- Helping individual constituents with problems (e.g. a noise or housing problem, parking issues)
- Community leadership: Problem solving and bringing the community together. This could be organising community activities like BBQs or flower planting, campaigning for safer routes to a school, or trying to get a better police response to drug related crime.
Each councillor & target candidate should have one community project or campaign to bring about change in the ward. - Council wide policies: getting action on climate change, better buses instead of more roads, biodiversity, mental health services, youth work, small businesses etc etc. the list is endless! We focus on key areas of interest.
All Councillors do some of all 3 but most focus more on one of these areas depending on their particular skills and interests.
Within this there are different approaches. You may like digging into the detail and technical aspects of a policy to find out what’s really going on and forming an alternative policy, you may be good at coordinating a small group to plan a campaign, enthusing people on social media or asking challenging questions in a committee. You may be great at persuading Council staff behind the scenes, comforting an upset resident or making an event happen locally.
The role of candidate and Councillor is diverse and fascinating and shaped by you as part of an active, caring and committed team.How much time does it take?Expand
We ask you to commit a minimum of eight hours a week if you are elected to be a District Councillor and five hours a week to be a Town Councillor. But this is flexible in terms of timing – some weeks it will be more, some less. This commitment covers council meetings and helping the local community to solve problems (known as case work) which tends to be shared across the available councillors. Apart from a limited number of meetings when you become a Councillor you can choose when you make your contributions.
- For District Councillors, we find that with commitment less than 8 hours a week on average the role of a councillor can become stressful as you try and fit too much into too small a time. Quite a few of our councillors who worked full time up until being elected have opted to reduce their working hours to 4 days a week, but there are some who successfully continue to work full time.
- In the period as a candidate prior to elections if you are able to commit 8 hours a week that’s great, but to start with it can be less as you step up into the role. By March 2023 we’d normally expect you to have built up to that 5 hour (Town Councillor) or 8 hour (District Councillor) a week minimum mark.
- At the busy election time itself you should expect to do more, but we work through what that means for each person individually.
What support and training will I get? Expand
If you become a target candidate to stand for election we will work with you to create a personalised training plan which will involve national or regional training.
We’ll give you support to plan and implement a local campaign that is of interest to you. The Association of Green Councillors also offers great support.
If you become a Councillor, Warwick District Council offers comprehensive training and we’ll also work with you to help you identify your goals as a Councillor. Town Councils offer some training which is supplemented by the Association of Green Councillors.
Do I have to be a member of the Green Party?Expand
Yes, by the time you formally apply to become a target candidate you need to be a member of the party. Join the Green Party at https://join.greenparty.org.uk
Joining also allows you to access the members area which opens up training like this one:
Make your part of the world a better place – be a Green Party councillor!Do I have to agree with everything the Green Party say? Expand
No. It’s important you’re in line with our values and ethos of community politics that treats each person respectfully, but you don’t have to agree with every policy. We do our best to disagree well and work hard to listen to each other.
Unlike the other main parties, we don’t have a ‘party whip’ where Councillors are told how to vote. We work to try to reach consensus on particular issues, but if you as a Green councillor choose to vote differently that is your choice, which will be respected so long as you’ve discussed it in advance.Do I have to go to lots of meetings?Expand
For both District and Town Councillors the minimum number of formal meetings is about 18 a year, (between one and two a month). There is an expectation that you attend these meetings unless you have a good reason.
This is:
- six full Council meetings a year which all councillors attend
- twelve committee meetings a year – focusing on a particular area of interest. These are much smaller.
District and Town Council meetings normally take place in the early evening – e.g. 6pm.
In addition, you should expect to come to a once a month Green Party ward team meeting discussing casework and campaigns. We do our best to make sure these are practical, supportive and helpful!Do I have to do public speaking?Expand
Not very much. We do need some Councillors to speak publicly at meetings and in the media, so if you enjoy this that’s great, but not everyone has to do this. To be an effective Councillor it’s far more important that you’re able to build relationships with and talk to Council officers and residents on a 1-1 basis.Do I get paid?Expand
If you are elected you receive an allowance. The period as candidate before an election is voluntary.
Warwick District Councillors are paid an allowance of £5481 per year. You can also claim childcare costs for formal meetings.
Leamington Town Councillors receive an allowance of around £900 per year. Kenilworth Town Councillors don’t take an allowance.What next?Expand
Give us a call or message and ask us any questions. You may already have the contact details of the person who pointed you to this page, or feel free to facebook message us or email info@warwickdistrict.greenparty.org.uk
We’ve got more information and resources to help you think through the role and whether it’s for you. If you’ve already had a chat with one person we’ll normally try and organise an opportunity with someone else from the Green Team plus the original person so that you can get to meet more people and get another point of view.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Members of the Warwick District Green Party campaign team after securing 2 new Green Party County Councillors in May 2021