Getting Started

In order to successfully complete all of the necessary stages of creating a new local council in your area – two factors should always be borne in mind; you will need to be able to persuade other residents in your area about the benefits for that community of creating a new local council; and you will also need to prove to enough residents that a new local council is the right model of community governance for your locality.

This means that you and your campaign group will have to have a good enough awareness of the technical hurdles to be overcome in creating a new local council and have a media and public relations strategy ready to win over local media and the like to win over hearts and minds of residents.

Essentially a new local council can only be created after a Community Governance Review has been triggered in a particular principal local authority area. A principal local authority can choose to undertake a Review or a community can trigger one by securing enough signatures on a petition and making proposals to the principal local authority.

The main factors to consider before embarking on a serious campaign to create a new local council in your area are:

    why you think the council is needed;

    what benefits it will bring;

    likelihood of gaining sufficient valid petitionary signatures;

    receptiveness of the principal local authority to alternative methods of community governance;

    the outcome of previous attempts (if any) to create a new local council in your area.

Much of the detailed information regarding how to create a new local council in your area can be found in a publication NALC launched in June 2010 called Power To The People.

This publication contains case studies, detailed step-by-step advice on the moves to make in your campaign and explains the pitfalls to avoid in embarking on this exciting journey – based on the experiences of local councils around England.

For a hard copy A3 sized poster from the Power To The People pack, email beverley.brown@nalc.gov.uk with your name and address