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Have your say: NALC elections survey 01/08/2019

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is researching the local elections in May this year to examine the elections process for parish and town councils.

Following the May 2019 local (town and parish) elections, the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) are undertaking research based on the experiences of councillors, councils and county associations. A mix of qualitative and quantitative survey questions will be given to county associations and clerks to answer and distribute. The qualitative data gathered will give councils and councillors a chance to describe their personal experiences (good and bad); while the quantitative data collected will give a statistics-based overview of the local elections.

NALC aims to gather the voices and experiences from different levels of local government: individual councillors, councils and county associations. In addition to experiences gathered from diverse geographic locations around the country and from a large size range of council. The research gathered will also obtain more information about councillors themselves such as their motivations for running for election, their use of election materials and how they promoted the election in their communities.

NALC will be placing this survey research in conjunction with additional quantitative data gathered from district and borough councils’ websites, revealing; how many seats were won through a contested election; the number of co-opted councillors; and the number of vacant seats on local councils. Overall, this research has several targeted audiences which will highlight a range of experiences. Placing first-hand experiences in a context of quantitative analysis will produce an in-depth  picture  of  the 2019 May local elections. NALC expects that this research will uncover positive as well as negative experiences and will be used by the entirety of local government as a springboard to promote the next elections for all local councils. NALC aims to promote the election process as an important part of being the first tier of government and suggest ways that councils can encourage more members of the public to stand for election.

Survey for clerks to fill in: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GC5TVYF

Survey for councillors to fill in: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GHKRX5J