Writings by me

Put your hands up if you know who your local councillor is. Double points if you know what issues they campaign on.

On Thursday this week, residents across the UK will get to decide on their local councillors for the only time this year. It’s not just an opportunity to show what we really think of our leaders right now; it’s also an opportunity for us, as parents and carers, to impact our local area and inevitably our childrens’ lives.

At the last local elections in 2021, just 35% of people voted. As the first port of call for us to exercise our democratic right, it’s astonishing that turnout was not higher. And even though the parenting juggle can mean we only actually remember to vote when the kids are finally tucked up in bed, you’ve just sat down, there’s only half an hour to go and you can’t remember where you put your polling card (trust me we’ve all been there), take this as your much needed early reminder.

We’re all navigating through these increasingly strange times of pandemic recovery, a cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency. Voting on Thursday is a sure-fire way to try to change a small bit of the world around us and make lives better for families across the UK. Social care, schools, community development and planning are just a handful of the things local government has responsibility for. A quick browse of my own local council’s website and the initiatives they’re promoting read like a personal wish list for a greener, fairer and happier community.

Things like e-bike initiatives, liveable neighbourhood schemes and local plans for a safer, cleaner and healthier place to live, affect us all in more ways than we realise. The single most important thing we can do this week therefore, is to show up and vote. It’s the right thing to do, it’s sort of thrilling (no? Just me?) and if you take your kids, you can feel smug that you’re demonstrating good civic duty to them as well.

If you still haven’t raised your hand from the first sentence of this email, don’t worry you can easily find out your local candidates for election by visiting electoralcommission.org.uk. Now where did I put that polling card…