What does a councillor do?

Councillors, or members, are elected by local people to plan, run, monitor and develop council business.

Becoming a councillor is a rewarding way of making a difference to the city and local people.

What does the role involve?

Councillors work to improve the quality of life for people within Wolverhampton and they make decisions about local issues. Sometimes they work in partnership with other organisations.

Councillors are essential in deciding what is in the public interest amidst a range of conflicting issues and views.

Councillors usually represent a political party. However they can be independent. All councillors represent all the citizens of Wolverhampton including taxpayers and customers of the council's services.

Main areas of responsibility

The role of councillor can be very varied and it is up to each individual councillor how they work.

However, the three main areas of responsibility are:

• Representing the people in their area (ward) and becoming a representative of Wolverhampton
• Community leadership
• Formulating policy.

Code of conduct

Councillors have to agree to follow a code of conduct to ensure high standards in the way they undertake their duties. The council’s standards committee trains and advises them on the code of conduct.

Attendance at council meetings

All councillors meet together at the full council approximately every six weeks. Meetings of the council are usually open to the public. At these meetings councillors decide the council’s overall policies and set the budget each year. The council appoints councillors to the Cabinet (the Executive) and to the various scrutiny panels and committees. Each councillor will serve on between two and five of these bodies which will mean attending meetings (mostly at the Civic Centre), perhaps two or three times a week. 

Some councillors are appointed to represent the council on other bodies, national and local. The council also appoints councillors to undertake overview and scrutiny of the Executive.  

Working within the community

Councillors generally focus on the high level objectives of the council: they plan ahead to make sure that the city of Wolverhampton remains a good place to live, work and play. Ward concerns mean that councillors remain in touch with their constituents and help them in resolving individual issues or problems. As a large part of their time will be spent dealing with matters raised by their constituents, most councillors operate surgeries to enable the public to speak with them.