Councillor’s goal to make Lewes District Council more appealing to young people

He said the view that being a councillor was just about helping the more retired generation ‘needs to be broken’ and he would like to see a youth council set up in the district.

“One thing I wanted to achieve when becoming a councillor was to make Lewes District Council more appealing to a younger generation,” Mr Macleod told the Express.

“One thing you hear from friends is ‘well they don’t know what it’s like, they’re not as young as we are’.

“There is a feeling that councillors are really out of step with the younger generation and that their thinking is very different. We have to break this way.”

Mr Macleod said he believes the whole council needs to sit down and have a ‘proper debate’ on how it can make the council more appealing to the younger generation and how it can get younger people more engaged in local politics.

He added: “Before the Covid-19 outbreak I approached the chief executive and councillor Johnny Denis as I would like to see a youth council set up within the Lewes District.

“Right now the council is not geared towards those of a younger generation, and it’s actively something we have to address.”

In response, councillor Zoe Nicholson, leader of the district council, said: “I couldn’t agree more with Councillor Macleod.

“When the Co-operative Alliance took control of the council in July last year, it struck me how young people are under-represented on the district council and as leaders in local communities.

“It was one of the reasons why we commissioned a piece of work to engage young people in our climate emergency and action group.

“It’s so important to make our council more accessible to young people and I hope that the open and engaging culture being fostered by the Co-operative Alliance, will encourage greater participation amongst younger groups.

“I am hopeful that by the next local elections we will have more working age young people standing for election and feeling like it’s a real job that they can do, and afford to do.

“I would be happy to talk to Councillor Macleod about how we could work together on this once we are have emerged from managing the Covid-19 crisis.”

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