Flatpack Democracy: On a mission to transform local politics through Independent Candidates

Flatpack Democracy is a framework for communities to win back their council as non-party candidates, it was born in Frome, Somerset in 2011 when The Independents For Frome group was established; over the next four years they ran for and won every seat on the council. Taking control away from a prior conservative majority and going on to enact hugely positive changes in the local area.

Some of the things they've done are open up the town hall as an information centre, improve the local green spaces, supporting various sustainability projects and community projects to encourage street-level neighborliness.

Since then, Peter Macfadyen, one of the original founders of IfF, has gone on to write two how-to guides, and the idea of Flatpackery has spread to other areas, and other councils in the country.

Buckfastleigh and Haswells Community Party are just two fantastic examples of Flatpack in action.

The Flatpack 2021 campaign is about trying to support ordinary people to reclaim their local politics from the parties that are failing them. We want to inspire people to run for and win seats on their town and parish councils. There are thousands of local elections up and down the country this year and our ultimate goal is to have every one of them filled by an independent candidate.

Flatpack Democracy aim to equip individuals with the knowledge needed traverse to traverse local politics as independent candidates.

What we offer is to work with these groups and individuals who want to stand for election, and once they're elected we will continue to offer support and avenues for collaboration so they can make their parish, town or even district, unitary and county councils as brilliantly subversive as they like.

We're in a pretty dire situation just now, we're staring down the barrel of another wave of Covid-19, an inevitable recession compounded by Brexit and the ever looming climate crisis overshadowing it all... and it might seem a bit off-base with this in mind to put so much effort into the lowest levels of government but that's really where the power lies.

Devolvement and municipalism is where it's at, grassroots, activist energy that's connected to the local area, and tuned in to the needs of the people that live there. Flatpack is about expanding the reach and the role of local authorities and building that influence from the bottom up.

The promise of Flatpack 2021 is to loop the disenfranchised back into the national conversation by empowering candidates who don’t just give lip service to engaging their communities but actually hold participation as a central aim. Our big-picture goal is to humanize politics, to change people’s perceptions of what they can do, and what their councils can do for them.

Link up with us on; 

Facebook - @flatpackdemocracy

Twitter - @flatpackdemoc

Instagram  - @flatpackdemocracy

Or visit our website to find out more - flatpack2021.co.uk

To get further engaged with the work of Flatpack join in on some of the upcoming virtual events below:

The Pub Quiz at the Flatpack Arrrms Tickets, Thu 28 Jan 2021 at 19:00 | Eventbrite

Let’s rebuild democracy together - Flatpack 2021 Summit Tickets, Sat 30 Jan 2021 at 11:00 | Eventbrite

Lollie Melton

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A call to action...

For 24 years OBV have fought to ensure black and minority ethnic participation and representation in civic society. Efforts in continuing to do so though, relies on your help. That way we can continue this fight for greater race equality. What would give us a tremendous boost is if today, you made that small donation yourselves, but even more importantly if you encouraged others to do likewise.