We all have the ability to impact change most greatly at the grass roots, local level, by meeting our local council. But this is not always straightforward and may be daunting. How do you take the first step? What is in the council’s own constitution? Are they meeting their obligations to the people they represent (the 7 principles of public life)? How do you challenge your local council if they are knowingly or unknowlingly breaking their own promises? How do you find out how much they understand about immediate and the potentially devastating long term effects of the policies they are planning on implementing (see Agenda 2030)?
Help is at hand!
UKCitizen have put together an information pack outlining all the practical steps and information on effectively engaging with your local council. ‘Going Local’ is a grassroots initiative to harness that power by educating and challenging councillors and council officers on policies that do not serve the people. It is at the local level where, together, we can effect change. The information contained in this first ‘Going Local Pack’ (April 2023) is a blueprint for interaction with your council on ‘Net Zero’ policies arising out of the ‘Climate Crisis’.
Richard Vobes Interviews UKCitizen.org founders about getting involved with councils
This Going Local Pack represents a starting point; we envisage it evolving over the coming
months. As more of you begin to engage with your local councillors and officers, there will be wins
and there will losses; both will serve to build our knowledge base and will inform the updates
and amendments to this pack. By sharing the outcomes of your interactions with the
councillors and officers, we will be able to create blueprints for future engagements.
Understanding what works and what doesn’t will be critical to our longer term success
nationally.
We are excited to share that we have, as part of the team, an independent advisor who joins us
with decades of experience in organisation transformation. He has worked in strategic
advisory of organisations and management internationally, nationally, regionally and locally
in both the private and public sectors. If we are to change our future, we will have to change
the organisations that currently rule our lives. What do you do once you have secured
engagement with the council and shared the research and data? How do you effect the
changes we want to see? We can help you build a strategy to answer those questions and
thereby improve your chances of success
Going Local Pack
This pack is aimed at individuals or groups wishing to quickly understand what is going on in the world and enable them to confidently attend and interact with councils, councillors and officers.
- Engaging with Councils
a. Your Council and You
b. Suggested Documents to request from your council
c. Summary of the Localism Act 2011
i. A plain English guide to the Localism Act
d. How to Send a Freedom of Information (‘FOI’) Request to Your Council in
Relation to the ‘Climate Crisis’
e. The Delphi Technique (also known as the Delphi Method)
f. The Power Resides with the People…Resistance is NEVER futile
g. Suggested Questions for Councillors and Officers Involved in ’Net
Zero’/‘Carbon Neutral’/‘Absolute Zero’ policies - Two Key UK Reports:
a. Summary of Absolute Zero by UK Fires
i. ‘Absolute Zero’ – full document
b. Summary of ‘The Future of Urban Consumption In a 1.5°C World’
(C40 Cities Headline Report)
i. ‘The Future of Urban Consumption In a 1.5°C World’ – full document - Does the Science Support the ‘Climate Crisis’?
a. Is ‘Climate Crisis’ Real?
b. An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore, Science of Propaganda - The Real Agenda
a. United Nations Climate Agenda 1975 – Present
b. Summary of Part of Patrick Wood’s Book: ‘Technocracy – The Hard Road to
World Order’ - UK Entities Whose ‘Climate Emergency’ Policies Need to be Challenged
- Resources and Further Reading