What makes someone want to become a councillor? The government has grappled for some time with how to make our representatives in local government more, well, representative of the way society is made up. But it has proved a particularly hard nut to crack. Next week, the fifth census of councillors will be published by the Local Government Association and the Improvement and Development Agency. Th...

A government scheme to open 200 bail hostels in residential areas around the country purposely avoids public scrutiny, the media and local councillors, a leaked memo has suggested.

Conservative Councillors in Plymouth are not passing on the 2.5% VAT cut across a range of popular services the Labour Party revealed today. Plymouth City Council has stated that car parking, library books and visits to leisure centres won't see any of the cut, which is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to local residents. Neither will any of the shoppers in the council's retail outl...

Labour Councillors have slammed the Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who has increased fares on the underground and on buses by six per cent, way above the rate of inflation. Some fares will rise even further. The price of a single bus journey by Oyster will rise by eleven per cent from 90p to £1. Labour say that these fare increases will hit Westminster residents hard, especiall...

Tewkesbury Council has evidently run out of things to do because its Mayor has had enough time on his hands to come forward with a particularly barking idea - for Christians to get free parking in Tewkesbury on Sundays. Not shoppers. Not those who want to go sightseeing or to visit relatives. Just Christians. Bonkers. How about if he and his fellow councillors spent their time looking at ways to c...

Should we fund councillors’ refreshments? I was interested by this article in the Northern Echo which reveals that South Tyneside Council spent £25,503 on tea and biscuits and other snacks between April 2007 and May of last year. Susie Squire, from the Taxpayers’ Alliance campaign group, said: “It is wrong that taxpayers, who are already struggling in

No real surprises here, with one story dominating your and my attention - the awful death of Baby P. 10. George Meehan and Liz Santry resign - the two key Labour councillors (council leader and lead member for children's services) finally took responsibility for Haringey Council's failings. 9. Baby P investigation update - thoughts following a meeting with Cabinet minister Ed Balls. 8. Panorama on...

I've just read that in 1974, Bramber Parish Council decide to switch off its street lights for three days as a cost saving measure. Following the experiment, the Council Chair issued a press release announcing to the taxpayers of Bramber that there had been a saving of £11.59 on the Council's electricity bill. At the following meeting the Council Treasurer informed Councillors that...

My comments about Haringey Council's habit of trying to turn its back on proper scrutiny of its actions seem to have caught a bit of media attention, as with The London Paper: HARINGEY Council needs to shake up the way it scrutinises its own work in the wake of the Baby P tragedy, an MP has said. Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, accused ruling Labour councillors ...

Opposition Labour councillors in Aberdeen claim their e-mails have been "tampered with" during a probe.