Get involved
Growing Great Places civic crowdfunding

Got a great idea for your local place? Looking for some support to make it happen? You could get a pledge of up to £5k from Kirklees Council. Find out how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign – or check out the local projects who are crowdfunding right now…
Growing Great Places workshop
Growing Great Places projects
How do you feel about getting involved?

How do you feel about getting involved in your community? Please fill in our quick online form to tell us whether you feel it’s worthwhile to get involved and what you think helps people to become active citizens. It takes 5 to 10 minutes. We’d love to hear from you.
Tell us how you feel
Local Democracy Week

We celebrate Local Democracy Week with a programme of activities happening throughout October. You can get involved by adding your activities to our programme, by hosting a conversation, by sharing your story or by inviting us along to your community to help people learn about (and get involved in) local democracy. Have a look at last year’s programme for some ideas:
Local Democracy Week 2023 programme
We’ve all got a story to share

Our stories, our places
We’re working with local people and the New Citizen Project to learn how more people can come together to make local places better. It all starts with listening to each other’s stories. If you’ve got a story to share about something you’ve helped to make happen in your local place, we’d love to hear from you. Welcome to our new storytelling website…
Our stories, our places
Democracy Friendly Schools

Our Democracy Friendly Schools programme is helping more of our young citizens be part of local democracy and civic life. If you’re part of a school community, if you have a child at school anywhere in Kirklees, or if you’re connected to a local school then you can help by encouraging your school to get involved.
We are Democracy Friendly
How good is our place?

Our towns, villages and communities are the strength of Kirklees – and local people have asked us to do more to recognise this. So we’re working with citizens, councillors and colleagues to make sure that everyone has a stake in the place where they live, work or visit. Activities are open now:
How good is our place?
Democracy Seekers
Wish it was easier to find out about local issues and decisions that affect you? We’re looking for Kirklees citizens to become Democracy Seekers. You’ll be helping to improve our democratic information, so that we can grow a stronger local democracy for everyone.
Democracy Seekers
Growing a stronger youth council
We’re proud to have launched the “Growing a stronger youth council” report, about the future of Kirklees Youth Council. Our report shares what young people told us about having a voice, getting involved in community life, and how we can help them to grow the skills, confidence and connections that they want, in the way that they want.
Growing a stronger youth council
Working Group
Our Working Group for the Kirklees Democracy Commission are overseeing our practical work to grow a stronger local democracy.
Our meetings are webcast live and you can follow along via @kirkdemocracy on twitter.
Get involved: Working Group info
Kirklees Question Time
Get your questions answered by local councillors at our regular Question Time events.
Get involved: Kirklees Question Time
Batley 150
We’re celebrating 150 years since the founding of Batley Borough Council. A group of volunteers are planning events and activities and would love you to join in.
Get involved: Batley 150
Huddersfield 150
We’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the borough of Huddersfield – it’s part of a rich democratic heritage in Kirklees that we can be proud of today.
Huddersfield 150 events
Get involved: Huddersfield 150
Vote 100 – deeds not words
We’re proud to be part of Vote 100, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, which first gave some women (and all men over 21) the right to vote.
We’ve created a Vote 100 Kirklees website where you can see a list of upcoming events in Kirklees, get ideas about running your own event and find links to the Centenary Grant Fund, or find out more about the fight for the vote.
Vote 100 in Kirklees
Deeds not words
As our contribution to Vote 100, we’re sharing 100 little deeds for local democracy throughout the year. Please get involved by doing something, however small, to celebrate democracy for everyone.
100 little deeds for local democracy
Previous events
Want to catch up on an event you missed, or take a second look? You can find out what’s already happened here – stories, webcasts & more…
Events archive
Launch event | Videos | Slides
Keep in touch
Follow us via @kirkdemocracy on twitter for more info and tweet your comments and questions any time using #kirkdemocracy
Make sure you’re signed up for our email updates…
Join our email list
You can also email us your comments any time:
Democracy@Kirklees.gov.uk
Reviewing the evidence
Over 1,000 people have talked to us about local democracy in Kirklees and beyond. Thank you to everyone who has got involved so far.
- 88 people took part in discussions at our local democracy roadshow events across Kirklees.
- We met with the Kirklees Youth Council, Huddersfield University Students Union, partner organisations and other groups.
- 43 witnesses gave evidence during our public inquiries and evidence gathering sessions.
- 318 members of the Kirklees e-panel shared their views.
- 441 Kirklees Council staff shared their views.
- We have heard from councillors and political groups in Kirklees.
- We have visited some other councils to learn from their experiences.
- We’ve also received comments in writing, via social media, via our web site and by email.
We reviewed and deliberated all this evidence to help us create our report. You can look through the evidence too: