Next year, there will be elections everywhere in Monmouthshire.

Residents will have the opportunity to elect councillors to Monmouthshire County Council as well as councillors for their local town or community council.

Local councils are the foundation of our democracy and the tier of government that is closest to the people.

Being a councillor is a rewarding opportunity to represent the interests of your community and contribute to the decision-making process.

Next year’s elections will take place on new boundaries – so whichever ward you live in currently, it might be changing.

Many of the boundaries have been redrawn so that all councillors now represent roughly the same number of people. These new boundaries are much fairer and complement new town and community boundaries, which include some merged or reorganised community councils.

Since the pandemic began the job spec of a county councillor has changed considerably, with IT proficiency now being essential.

In future, all meetings will be hybrid meetings, meaning that you can either attend in person or join a meeting virtually.

This makes the role far more accessible to people of working age.

In the past, councils in Wales have been dominated by older men, but tortuously slowly have been becoming more diverse.

Monmouthshire is one of the most diverse councils in Wales, but we still need to go further in electing more councillors of working age and more women as well as other under-represented characteristics.

There is a real opportunity in this election to accelerate what has been really slow progress in Wales in electing more councillors of working age.

In the months ahead all four political groups represented in Monmouthshire County Council will be making plans for the forthcoming elections.