Local authorities are responsible for local policies and service provision.

In some areas there are two authorities - a county council and a district council. 

County and district councils have responsibility for different services as summarised below. In other areas, there is a single, unitary, authority with responsibility for all of these issues.

Districts/boroughs:

• Collection of council tax
• Environmental health
• Council housing and housing benefit
• Planning applications
• Recreation
• Arts and leisure
• Footpaths, car parking, etc (off road)
• Waste collection
• Electoral services (voter registration, elections, etc).

County councils:

• Education and youth services
• Fire and police
• Highways and traffic management (including pedestrian crossings)
• Social care
• Strategic planning
• Recreation, arts, libraries
• Trading standards
• Waste disposal.

The structure of local authorities

Local authorities have two parts.

1. The council

The council is made up of around 60 councillors. Within this, they may have different structures. Most local authorities have a small "cabinet" of elected councillors. Each councillor in the cabinet has responsibility for specific services.  For example, one councillor is responsible for social services. Some other local authorities are structured around service committees, which are made up of both councillors and officers (employees). These service committees make recommendations to the Council.

Look on your local authority's website, telephone them or visit your town hall to find out how your local authority is structured and who the councillors are. To find your local authority's contact details, visit www.direct.gov.uk.

2. Officers

Officers are employed staff who work for the local authority.

Where can I find out what my local authority is doing?

Your local authority produces lots of information that will help you find out what their priorities are, what decisions are in progress and how the authority works. 

• The constitution sets out how decisions are made
• Standing Orders tell you when meetings will be held
• The Forward Plan sets out key decisions that will be taken by officers or councillors over the coming four months.  They include information about when the cabinet will meet and when the results of scrutiny committees will be considered
• Agendas and minutes of meetings tell you what will or has been discussed at meetings and who said what
• Results of local consultations
• Results of scrutiny committees
• Departmental strategy and policy documents
• Departmental reports

All of this information is available on request from your local authority and much of it will be available on their website.

Some information about your local council, such as economic and demographic statistics and budgets are available on the Improvement and Development Agency Knowledge website at www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk and Ofsted reports are available on their website at www.ofsted.gov.uk. 

Influencing your local authority

There are many ways that you can influence your local authority. Which is best depends on what the issue is and what you want to achieve. The most direct ways are to contact your councillors or a member of staff or make a complaint but you can also make use of the media or take part in other actions, such as protests.

Contacting your councillors

Depending on the structure and size of your local authority, you will usually have between one and three councillors representing your area (known as a ward). 

You can find out who they are and how to contact them by

• Looking on your local authority’s website
• Looking on www.writetothem.com
• Phoning your local authority
• Asking in your town hall or local library

In addition, there will be a councillor with specific responsibility for each area of the councils work, such as social care. You can contact the relevant councillor directly. You can find out who they are by asking the local authority or looking on their website.

You can write to or meet your councillors. Councillors are busy people. They often have full or part time jobs in addition to the work they do on the council. Try to keep letters to them and meetings with them clear, short and concise. Think about what your important points are and try to be specific about what you want them to do.

Your councillors will hold regular, usually monthly, drop-in sessions, known as surgeries. You can just turn up to one of these to meet your councillors but you may have to wait a long time and may only get a short meeting. We recommend that you book a meeting in advance.

You can arrange to meet your councillor either at a local authority building or, very often, they will meet you at your home or in a nearby place that is convenient for you both. If you need communication support, or have other access needs, your councillor should meet these needs, provided that you give them enough notice. They can claim back the expenses from the local authority.

Plan what you want to say before your meeting. Be clear about what your important points are and what you want your councillor to do. Don’t let your councillor stop you saying what you want to say!

Deputations to councils

Most councils have arrangements for 'receiving deputations', usually at the beginning of full council meetings. These are an opportunity for a group to address the council for a few minutes and answer questions. Although these are rather formal occasions, they give you the chance to make your point to a large number of councillors at the same time, and the local press will almost certainly be present.

To find out how to send a deputation, you can contact your town hall or approach a sympathetic councillor who may be willing to introduce your deputation.

Complaints

Every local authority has a complaints procedure.  It includes three stages:

• Informal. Talk to the department you are unhappy with and try to resolve the problem.  If successful, this is often the quickest route to a solution.  However, it is unlikely to have much bite and therefore little impact on services for other people
• Formal. Your complaint will be investigated by a service manager or by a complaints officer 
• Review. A review panel will look at your complaint.  Usually the panel will be made up of two councillors and an independent person (someone not associated with the Authority)

If you are still not happy after going through the complaints procedure, you can take your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

For further advice on how to make an effective complaint, see our page on
How to use complaints to help a campaign.

Scrutiny committees

Local authority scrutiny committees are responsible for examining the work of local authority services. They also have the power to examine local health services. The committee is made up of elected councillors and will report back to the cabinet or other committees.

Scrutiny committees use evidence from a variety of sources, including written submissions from individuals.

Contact us for more information.