Information about the Houghton Regis Town councillors and the work they do can be found on the town council website at http://www.houghtonregis.org.uk/.
Councillors for Tithe Farm
Councillors for Parkside
Councillors for Houghton Hall
Fresh elections for Houghton Regis Town and Central Bedfordshire Councils take place every 4 years from May 2011. Almost certainly all parties in the area will be looking for new candidates to replace those outgoing persons not intending to stand again. Party membership is not a prerequisite, and independents sometimes win seats.
The work of the Houghton Regis Town Council is spread over a few committees, meeting in the main on some Monday evenings, although other evenings and some daytime meetings do occur. Accounts, (making sure bills are appropriate and paid), Environment Committee (things like setting cemetery fees, approving the way forward for securing allotments sites, playgrounds, approving Village Green activity, circus visits,..etc), Policy Committee, Grants (approving grants to charities and local organisations), Planning (not deciding plans, but commenting on them in a responsible way). There are several sub-committess or working committees, the most important being the Carnival Committee that handles the Houghton Regis main annual event. The Town Council publish information about their activity in an official 'Town Crier' publication sent to every household in the town. Meeting dates are published on the notice board outside the council offices in Peel Street, Houghton Regis, and the public is welcome to attend. Town councillors are unpaid.
The work of the Central Bedfordshire Councillors can be found on the Central Bedfordshire website.
At this time, four CBC councillors represent Houghton Regis.
The overall guesstimate for CBC councillor's time involved is about 2 to 3 days per week, either spent reading material, or at meetings, some of which are held in the evening, and some during the day.
In addition, councillors often get involved in quite distressing, and sensitive, individual case-work which cannot be publicly discussed. In an area of high deprivation, like Tithe Farm and Parkside, in Houghton Regis, this casework may easily take them over the 3 days considered to be required to do the job properly. The remuneration for this work is in the form of allowances.
For 2010/11 the basic allowance is £11,220 (see Member Allowances).
(Update: for 2022/23 basic allowance was £12,349.80 ).
Could you be a councillor? Visit the Be A Councillor website to find out even more.
