Guide for prospective councillors

The time, effort and commitment councillors give to their role depends on the individual. On average, councillors spend around 22 hours per week on council duties, although many councillors spend considerably more, especially if they have taken on leading roles. The issues identified below give a flavour of how council business may call upon your time:

• Constituency matters - helping the people you represent to deal with problems. This will usually be by telephone, post or email but may include some face to face contact.
• Full Council meetings - these are held at County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich at least eight times a year. Meetings start at 10am and last around three hours.
• Other meetings - most meetings are held at County Hall during the daytime. You will probably be appointed to sit on one or more member-level meetings, such as a Service Committee, which normally sits seven times a year.
• Briefing/training sessions - new legislation, new policies and key information are presented to members at briefing and training sessions. On such occasions, councillors will be notified of dates in good time before the meeting. It is expected that councillors will attend these sessions to assist you in your roles within the community or in committees and to help with any development of training needs.
• Political group meetings - if you are a member of a political group, you will be expected to attend such meetings on a regular basis.
• Representation on outside bodies - you may be appointed onto an outside body as a representative of the council and this may involve an additional time commitment.