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This code is running as the backend at opencouncildata.co.uk

I made opencouncildata.co.uk because I couldn't find an up-to-date source for council compositions with accessible data. I'm aware of Local Councils, Keith Edkins' Site and the Vote UK Forum, all of which are fantastic resources, but none meets the requirements of being up-to-date and providing an accessible data format.

This site uses simple php webscraping to grab the names, parties and wards of councillors from council websites. They are for the most part kept up to date, and where they aren't I add corrections. A handful of council websites provide information only in PDFs or through non-machine readable Javascript shenanigans. I try to keep these up-to-date manually. Although for some people web scraping can have negative connotations, in this case I pay a visit to a council webpage roughly once per week, so the method has no negative impact.

I've made the site and the CSV databases Open Data using a Creative Commons license.

If you find this site useful or have ideas for how it could be used for the public good, get in touch through the website!