A YORK councillor is in the running for a national scholarship which would see her take forward plans for encouraging more people to get involved in local democracy.

Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without member Linsay Cunningham-Cross has been named as one of five candidates in the Bruce Lockhart Member Scholarship category at the Councillor Achievement Awards 2014, organised by democracy think-tank LGiU and CCLA. The award comes with a £10,000 bursary.

Coun Cunningham-Cross, who was elected to City of York Council for Labour in 2011, was shortlisted after submitting a proposal to develop “practical” ways of increasing public engagement and participation in local democracy.

Should she win, she will work on developing a tool for achieving this which can be used by all local authorities to assess their progress towards working more closely with the public.

Winners of the awards’ 11 categories will be announced at a ceremony on February 25, with the decisions being taken by a group of judges made up of councillors and local government experts.