What is a councillor?
Councillors, often referred to as members meaning members of the council, are elected by the people of South Tyneside, to oversee the running of the borough on their behalf.
There are 3 councillors for each of the 18 wards in the borough, making 54 councillors in all. Every councillor serves for a term of 4 years before having to either put themselves up for re-election or retire. Elections are held in 3 out of every 4 years and a third of the places on the council are contested in each of these 3 years.
Councillors are not employees of the council and would have to resign as a councillor if they became an employee of the council. Many councillors have full-time jobs and their council work is done in their spare time.