Cambridgeshire County Council have put up some videos on their YouTube channel from the leaders of the three main political groups on the Council.
The aim of the videos are to encourage people to put themselves forward to become councillors.
As the Council’s press release states:
The films represent a first for local democracy in Cambridgeshire, with the leaders broadcasting individual messages on the importance of people coming forward as councillors for the County Council elections, to be held on 4 June 2009.
The videos are classic talking head style, and as with all initial attempts at this stuff, they are a little stilted. But that’s fine, and hopefully these councillors, and others, will continue to use YouTube as a communications tool – after all, with more practice things will always improve.
There doesn’t seem to be a single place for people to go to find out about becoming a councillor anywhere on the web at the moment – there is information on individual council sites, of course, and CLG have some bits too. London Councils have a special site to encourage people to consider standing for election. However, the content is very static and not particularly engaging.
Having some video stuff from councillors explaining what they do and what is involved would be great, I think, along with links to councillor blogs and other information resources. Even better would be some sort of interaction between those who are considering being a councillor and those with experience to pass on. Something to humanise the whole thing a little.
Hello Dave,
Thanks for the comments. We are looking at developing a campaign to improve voter turnout and use online content to get the message home that voting matters.
Would you like to get involved? We’re at an early planning stage, but I think it would be good to get you onboard so you can influence or challenge our ideas.
My email’s above if you are interested – drop me a line back if so.
Best,
Andy Allsopp, Head of Communications, Cambridgeshire County Council.
Excellent, Andy! I’ll definitely be in touch!
hi andy
im really interestind in becoming a counciller im 32 years old and feel there should be be connection with not only the young voters but voters my age too,i would like to find out more about how to go about it,
is there any way i could contact you by telephone? hope to here from you soon
kind regards andrew
Stilted is being kind! The biggest challenge was trying to read my text which was held by the camera man next to the camera. even 12 font at 2 metres is quite an eye test!