2015 is an important year for Bisham and Cookham Liberal Democrats. As well as the general election on 7th May, there will be a vote for Borough and Parish Councillors on the same day. We are looking for Parish Council candidates. Borough candidates will be announced soon.
Cookham Parish Council is aiming to encourage enough candidates to stand for election that there will be a vote in all three wards – Cookham Rise (9 seats), West ward (4 seats in Cookham Dean) and Cookham village (2 seats). In past elections, we haven’t had more candidates than seats in Cookham Dean or Cookham village, and so these candidates were ‘elected unopposed’. As LibDems of course we are strong supporters of the democratic mandate and will be doing our bit to find candidates to stand as LibDems. But you don’t have to be a member of a political party to stand.
There are lots of useful things that Parish Councillors can do to help their community. In Cookham we have a dozen or so projects on nature, recreation, heritage and road safety in the pipeline, as well as the ongoing tasks of running the allotments, managing the cemetery and commenting on planning applications. There are one or two meetings a month on Tuesday evenings, and depending on which projects you get involved in, you may want to spend further time making progress with those.
Bisham is a smaller Parish Council with only six seats, but still offers a wide-range of topics for the community-minded Councillor.
I hope that some more people will resolve to contribute to our community by standing for election to their Parish Council. For more information about becoming a Parish Councillor, please contact Mandy Brar.
With best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous New Year,
Fiona Hewer