Local elections: contact your prospective councillors
The run-up to the local elections provides an excellent opportunity to share your experiences - and to raise awareness of issues affecting local blind and partially sighted people - because with an upcoming vote, councillors are keen for your support.
Now’s your chance to contact your prospective councillor and try to get them to commit to taking your issues forward.
Your local council is responsible for publishing a list of your prospective councillors. You can check which council you live in, on this website but then you’ll need to visit their website or phone them up to find the names of the candidates for your area.
We’ve put together the template email below, which focusses on RNIB’s local elections manifesto. You can either copy and paste the email and send it to your local candidates or add your own experiences and requests. The more you can personalise your letter, the more receptive your potential councillor is likely to be.
Template Councillor Email
Dear xxx,
I am writing to you as a local voter ahead of the upcoming elections. As a blind/partially sighted person in your ward, I am getting in touch to discuss the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)’s manifesto. I am supporting their calls for local authorities to:
Ensure that vision rehabilitation services are fit-for-purpose, well-resourced, and available to blind and partially sighted people in a timely way
Provide council information to blind and partially sighted residents in a format they can read
Give children with vision impairment the best start in life by providing and funding the specialist support they need at school
Ensure blind and partially sighted people can travel independently by ensuring street design is accessible, micro-mobility schemes such as e-scooters are safe, and active travel strategies are inclusive
Make democracy accessible by ensuring all polling stations and polling information is accessible and staff are trained to support blind and partially sighted voters
As my prospective councillor, I would welcome your support to make sure these issues are addressed; and I would like to hear how you would implement these requests if elected.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
With all best wishes,
XXX
If you’re not keen to write to your councillor, do consider using the manifesto as talking points with people who knock on your door to canvas for local candidates. The more we can raise these issues with local parties, the more parties will act to respond to issues affecting blind and partially sighted people.
