Writing
Practical writing for UK councillors.
Plain-English guides on ward data, planning applications, crime figures, running a surgery, and the first hundred days of a council term. Written from conversations with dozens of sitting councillors and candidates.
- (10 min read)
Your first 100 days as a new UK councillor: the things nobody tells you
The induction pack covers the statutory stuff. This is about the habits that separate the councillors who build a reputation quickly from the ones still finding their feet two years in.
- (11 min read)
How to read your ward’s crime data without getting it wrong
Police.uk is the most quoted and most misread dataset councillors use. A working guide to the traps that make councillors look either naive or alarmist, and how to avoid both.
- (9 min read)
Running a ward surgery residents actually talk about
Most surgeries are underattended, overlong, and forgotten the following week. The ones that get talked about are not run by the most charismatic councillors. They are run by councillors with a system.
- (12 min read)
How to actually use ward data to win votes in the 2026 local elections
The public data exists. It is spread across nine different painful websites. This guide is about pulling it together and using it properly on the doorstep, in surgeries, and after the vote.
- (11 min read)
The councillor’s guide to planning applications: what the data actually tells you
Planning generates more resident contact than any other issue and most councillors go into discussions with surprisingly little data. The IDOX portal was not built for you. Here is what to read on it.
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