Candidates Encouraged for May 2007 Elections

It is a personal decision (see the case study example below).

Remuneration & Responsibility
After May 2007, all Councillors will be guaranteed a basic salary of £15,452. Council Leaders and other senior Councillors who have significant additional responsibilities earn proportionately more.
Councillors represent a ward within the Perth & Kinross area. Three or four Councillors will be elected to each ward. They represent the people in the ward and are also responsible for making sure the council’s statutory duties are carried out.
This involves being a member of various committees which make decisions on matters such as council policies, strategies and budgets. This means employing local knowledge to work closely with council officials.
Councillors also:

* Make decisions about the way the council is run and about the services the council r
* Act as a point of contact with local groups
* Represent the views of local groups and individuals regarding council policies, services and the needs of the area
* Work with local people and organisations such as the police, health service and local business to develop and plan services
* Represent the community and the council on partnerships and outside bodies
* Hold open sessions – known as surgeries – when they meet the people they represent (their constituents) to discuss whatever issues they have about the neighbourhood

There is a National Code of Conduct for all Councillors, including rules on declaration of interests, was approved by the Scottish Parliament and published in May 2003. The Standards Commission is responsible for this Code.

Qualifications
On the day you are nominated as a candidate, and also on the day of election, you must be:

* Eighteen or over
* A citizen of the UK, Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland or another member state of the EU. And you must meet at least one of the four following qualifications:
m You are registered as a Local Government elector for the council area in which you want to be a candidate
* For 12 months before the date of nomination you have been the owner or tenant of any land or premises in the council area
* During the past 12 months your main or only place of work has been in the council area
* You have lived in the council area for the whole of the last 12 months

You cannot be a Councillor if:

* You are employed by the council or hold a paid office in the council or a joint board or committee (although you can be a Councillor in one council area and employed by another)
* You have had your estate sequestered in Scotland, are subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order in England and Wales or are bankrupt in Northern Ireland
* During the five years before the date of the election, you have been sentenced to a prison term of three months or more (including a suspended sentence) without the option of a fine
* You have been disqualified under Part III of the Representation of the People Act 1983
Candidate’s Procedure
The official steps to becoming a Councillor are:

* Your official nomination is submitted to the Returning Officer. If your nomination is valid, your name appears on notice of election first, then as candidate on ballot paper
* As a candidate you appoint an Election Agent
* Candidates and supporters campaign for votes
* Votes are cast in the May 2007 election using the Single Transferable Vote system

Detailed guidance for prospective candidates and Election Agents will be available from the Electoral Commission from January 2007.

Nominations
To stand for election to the new Highland Perthshire ward, a nomination paper must be submitted to the Returning Officer on behalf of the candidate. The candidate must agree to the nomination in writing for it to be valid.
The candidate must also declare that he or she is not disqualified from standing. (Returning Officers are not required to determine whether a candidate is disqualified from standing.) It is a serious offence to include false information on the nomination or consent, and a person found guilty of such an offence may face imprisonment for up to a year or an unlimited fine.
The nomination paper must contain:

* The candidate’s full name and, if wanted, any name by which the candidate is commonly known (e.g. Joanne Kathleen Rowling, commonly known as JK Rowling)
* Full home address
* If he, or she, is standing as the candidate of a registered political party
* A description which must be either the name or description of a registered party or the word ‘Independent’
* If a description is submitted, it must be accompanied by a certificate of authorisation from that registered party’s Nominating Officer
* A signature of a witness

The description will appear on the ballot paper along with the candidate’s full name and home address. A registered emblem of the party can also appear on the ballot paper if it is requested in writing.
Full details on how nominations are handled are available from the Returning Officer at Perth & Kinross Council.

Election Agents
Each candidate must appoint an Election Agent. This Election Agent is responsible for the proper management of the candidate’s campaign.
Candidates can choose to act as their own Election Agent.

Campaign Material
Campaign publicity material is subject to a number of restrictions under electoral law, and is also subject to the general civil and criminal law relating to published material.
All posters, placards and bills that refer to the election must carry an imprint on the face giving the name and address of each of the printer, the publisher, and the promoter of the material.
This also applies to all printed material distributed to promote the election of a candidate.

Positive Discrimination
In its June edition Comment undertook to encourage broader democratic engagement in these processes vital for civic life. It has pledged positively to discrimminate in favour of candidates who stand as independents in the 2007 electoral contest in Highland Pethshire.
To offset in some small way the advantages available to the established political parties in mobilising support ‘on the knocker’ for their selected candidates, Comment extends the facility of its pages, and its online edition, for declared Independents to present their credentials and manifesto to its 4,000+ monthly readership.

Case Studyof a councillor who is a grandmother representing a rural ward

How long have you served as a Councillor?
I have served as a Councillor for two years. I was elected at a by-election in June 2004 in a four-way contest. The previous year, in May 2003, I stood for election against the sitting Councillor and was defeated by six votes.

What initially attracted you to Local Government?
The attraction to Local Government was the belief that the elected member would have the ability and the authority to get things moving or done.
I have been involved in several organisations and groups in the community since moving to the Highlands over 30 years ago and as a community Councillor I have a general interest in everything which is happening or planned for our village.
I never really thought about it as politics more about getting decisions about local issues made at local level by local people.
In the wider context, I have always been extremely interested in current affairs at local, national level, and international level.

What has been your greatest achievement so far as a Councillor?
It is only two years since I was elected a Councillor and the wheels of local government move slowly, so the achievements have been miniscule.
Getting funding from a developer for a new crossing in the village, arranging to have the car park resurfaced and ensuring my ward is represented at all levels of decision making.
However, fighting for a permanent fire station for our retained fire fighters who were operating out of a portacabin with no running water or toilets has been my greatest achievement to date. We now have planning permission, funding is in place and work is due to start next month.
If housing stock transfer goes ahead in October this will be a great achievement as I am on the management committee of Highland Housing Association working to achieve this outcome.

What do you feel is the biggest challenge for Councillors?
On a personal note, I feel the changes in Local Government will create enormous challenges in 2007, new wards, larger areas. Loss of personal contact with the electorate could mean ‘local’ is removed from ‘Local Government’.
I believe the biggest challenge for Councillors is to hold the interest of the residents, to ensure the electorate realise they have a say in local decisions, that their opinions will be listened to and acted on.
People tell me they feel more and more decisions are being made at the centre and their voices are not heard.

In your role as a Councillor, what gives you the most satisfaction?
I get the most satisfaction when I can actively do something on behalf of the community or a resident, whether it is ensuring the bottle banks are emptied when overflowing, or acquiring funding for a school project, or arranging and physically helping a group of volunteers to clean up areas round their homes to improve their environment.
Getting the community to work together is very fulfilling. It is terrific when adults, children and grandparents come together to lend a hand.
On a strategic level it is exciting to be involved in the big decisions which affect the City of Inverness and the whole of Highland Region, decisions which will change and shape of the economy of the area in the next 30 years.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to stand as a Councillor?
I would advise anyone to ‘go for it!’
It is the most interesting, enlightening, useful, fulfilling work I have ever undertaken. On the other hand, occasionally it can be mind numbingly dull.
When I am sitting in a freezing hall, at a Community Council meeting at 10.45pm, 20 miles up a glen on a cold winter’s night, discussing sheep droppings at the side of the road, I sometimes wonder!