Only 252 days to go. Are you ready?

One of the things about being a parish councillor is that you get a stream of information about things that you never really realised you cared about, or why you might want to care about them. However, our Parish Clerk here in Creeting St Peter, or Paradise-sur-Gipping, as I prefer to think of it, enthusiastically provides us with a folder of documents from various organisations, containing as much information as I could wish for.

The one that really caught my attention is 2011 Census: Councillor Handbook, which "explains what the census is all about, why it matters and how you can help us spread the word in your council and community". There are, naturally some headline messages so, as a service to those of you who are councillors, here they are;

• The census matters to everyone who lives in your area. Census population estimates inform the allocation of resources to policy making and service planning at national and local level
• Census information is strictly confidential: personal information is protected by law
• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) needs the help and support of local councils, using their grassroots knowledge and experience to promote the census to their communities. Local activities to be carried out by census field staff and your council staff will be recorded in a census local partnership plan
• ONS runs the census in England and Wales. Our population estimates are built on quality data and produced to the highest international standards

So, there you have it, the 2011 Census in a nutshell...