Dear Editor,
As a Parish Councillor, I attend monthly meetings at the local village hall or church in Aberford where we go over the agenda and help the community deal with any hyper-local issues which are communicated to us.
Mostly this involves our attempts at dealing with speeding in the village by asking for speed reduction measures like speeding signs, and leasing with Leeds City Council Highways and transportation for roadwork repairs.
We also like many local Parish Councils approve funding requests for community projects such as the Aberford Authors, Aberford & Garforth in Bloom, the village hall summer faire, and the yearly Christmas lights illuminations; All of which help make the Parish Council area a nicer place to live, and we hope to improve the lives of our residents through the projects we fund and bringing more district council attention to the outskirts of Leeds.
However, we don’t tend to receive much public participation at our meetings despite advertising with a seasonal newsletter and welcoming all members of the public who attend.
It’s important to us that members of the public can have their input and give suggestions to us on how we can improve, but sadly without public participation, it can be more difficult for this to meet face to face, and listen to what our constituents would like their Parish Council to do.
Lack of public participation is not just a Parish Council issue, I have recently been attending Leeds City Council, at the Leeds Civic Hall, & West Yorkshire Combined Authority(WYCA) meetings, in Wellington House, Leeds.
Sitting in the public gallery area I noticed that despite Leeds having a population of near 1 million souls, and west Yorkshire with nearly 2 million persons, at all of the upper council meetings I went to, I was the sole person in attendance who didn’t work for the authority or LCC.
I tried to represent everyone, as I was technically representing all members of the public at these local government meetings, so I listened and spoke to councillors & even the Mayor after about issues raised in the meetings; they were kind, thoughtful, and intelligent people who listened to me, and I listened to them.
While a lot of the meetings were procedural, with civil servants reporting their work to Scrutiny committees or climate committees, many of the discussions and questioning done by Councillors and our Regional Mayor were really interesting and I learned a lot about how our Councils & Combined Authority operate.
I heard discussions of how to improve housing insulation, highlighting the work done by Civic Enterprise Leeds to provide food to schools & elderly residents.
The WYCA Executive voted to approve funding for improving Bus Services across the region including reducing the Westminster Bus Fare increase from £3 to £2.50, which is a reduction in bus ticket prices not seen in areas without a Devolved Regional Mayor, and they approved an investment in machinery for local businesses, while approving a £7 billion regional plan for investment, growth, and public grants in West Yorkshire over the next 10 years.
All of which shows how local government improves our lives faster than Westminster Government does.
I also was excited to hear at the Leeds City Council Climate Committee, a speaker invited from the Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission, who spoke about their work identifying areas of deprivation in Fuel Poverty, and how this data can help Local & Regional & National Government help deliver grant funding so that it is targeted at helping people who most need it in social homes and privately owned homes across Yorkshire.
In summary, I ask readers to perhaps make a new years resolution, to take a few hours of their time out one day next year in 2025, to attend a meeting of their local Parish Council, upper Council, or Combined Authority. Councillors work better during committees when there are public eyes in the gallery, and you will also likely learn something interesting about how your area is governed.
We councillors will certainly appreciate your input.
Cllr Tyler Callum Wilson-Kerr
Aberford & District Parish Council,
Leeds, Yorkshire, UK
How do we find out about where and when they are? Do they all take place during the 9-5 working day?
Hi Lily
Thanks for your comment.
Agendas for all Leeds City Council meetings can be found on the council website here: https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/mgCalendarMonthView.aspx?XXR=0&M=1&DD=2025&ACT=Go&
West Leeds Dispatch usually previews Leeds council meetings – such as planning, licensing and the decision-making executive board – when there is something relevant to West Leeds. Our previews include details, times and the full agenda of the meeting. Those meetings usually take place during the 9-5 working day.
We also preview both the inner and outer west area committees, with the inner west meeting usually held on an evening.
In the New Year we are moving into Horsforth and will be covering the town council there. Their meetings tend to be in the evening.
– John Baron, Editor
WYCA Calander:
https://westyorkshire.moderngov.co.uk/mgcalendarmonthview.aspx
Eyup Lilly, thank you for reading.
As the West Leeds Dispatch replied, the timings can be found at the LCC calander on the link above.
To view West Yorkshire Combined Authority meetings, which is our Regional Government, see the link below, itll take you to the calander of meetings.
I think there is a way to subscribe to recieve emails when a meeting is due.
Have a great new year love!