I thought I’d like to write a short piece about the thousands of unpaid volunteers who are Town and Parish Councillors and something of what they achieve.  A few years ago, I was attending a Parish Council meeting out of general interest, when they announced they didn’t have their full quota of councillors and were recruiting. So on the spur of the moment, I volunteered.

I have never regretted that decision, not one bit.

No-where else can you honestly do things that affect your local community so directly and in such positive ways.  Planning applications, allotments, football pitches, play grounds, litter picking, fetes, christmas lighting etc are just some of the things that are part of the picture on Town and Parish councils. Via the council, I also get invited to represent my community at other poignant meetings and represent our interests. All for the price of two or three evenings a month.

I’d like to give a simple example of something we’ve done together. We were asked by some members of the  public to provide a public toilet and we worked as a team to find the right place and the funding for one. I stuck to my guns about ensuring it was full accessible and had room for, wheelchairs, carers, prams etc and suggested appropriate locations. It took 18 months to build and we had quite a bunch of problems to overcome, but it was finally opened last year as a FREE public toilet. It is thankfully, well used and respected, but I bet the public have no idea what a battle it was.