The Councillor’s Commission recently reported to government, making in the region of 60 recommendations for central and local government to consider.
One of the areas they took a look at was the support that councillors get to communicate with their electorates. They seemed convinced there was more that could be done to improve on the current state of affairs:
In terms of widespread public communication it seems that councils could do much more to utilise technology to enhance access to local councillors (particularly for the younger generation) and the report of the All-Party Parliamentary Local Government Group concludes, that ‘Councils need to develop the use of new media and, in particular, communication with local people through new media’ (Dungey, 2007: 6). For example, Lancashire County Council web-casts most of its public meetings and reports attracting an average of 1,500 viewers each month.
It was suggested to the Commission that councillors themselves should do more to embrace the potential of IT to interact with their communities, for example using blogs and web 2.0 sites and perhaps extending schemes such as the mySociety HearfromYourMP.com service to provide a ‘Hear from Your Councillor’ service.
Their recommendation is broader than getting councillors blogging (as you’d want and expect), but they do think that blogs might be helpful:
As part of their corporate communications strategy, local authorities and councillors should promote the role of councillors using a range of communication tools, for example by:
a) using the media and communications resources of the council to work to build positive relations with the local media;
b) making use of council newsletters and other media publications;
c) harnessing technological solutions – such as email, web 2.0, blogs and texting – to make councillors’ activities more visible.
You can download a copy of their full report here.
Tags: councillors commission
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