I was inspired to enter local politics because of David Cameron and his drive to launch The Big Society concept. For me there has never been a more exciting or challenging time to be in local politics. The key concepts of The Big Society are to firstly to empower communities, effectively this means giving local councils and communities more power to take decisions and shape their area. The second aim is to open up public services enabling other organisations to compete to offer high quality services so that local authorities are not the only solution. Thirdly and most pivotal is the concept of promoting social action. This aims to encourage people from all walks of life to play a more active part in society as well as promoting more volunteering and philanthropy. As these ideas establish themselves in reality we will see the roll of the local authority change as it becomes more a commissioner of service rather than service providers, overseeing and scrutinising the service provision to the community. The Localism Bill will put the flesh on the bones of the Big Society concept by decentralising and strengthening local democracy, reforming planning policy, reforming social housing and introducing new duties and powers to local authorities. It also requires councillors to help communities build vision and direction, encouraging them to work in partnerships and to move away from the idea that the council can and must do everything. All of these ideals will require trust and solid relationship building. It will inevitably take time to achieve this but it must happen for communities to move forward and take control. The role of the local councillor is no longer just to inform or even consult communities, now we must involve communities in joint decision making and in joint action and most importantly be proactive in our role to support community organisations in order for them to be able to help themselves. All this will be even more challenging given the scope of the cuts needed to tackle the deficit, as a council we will be challenged with doing more for less which is why we will need to encourage new ways of working, new partnerships and delivery models but that is not a bad thing as I said earlier there has never been a more challenging or exciting time to be in local politics.