Have you ever wondered what a councillor actually does? Judging by some of the comments I receive, I suspect quite a few people think the answer is 'not very much.' I'm the first to admit that, when I was first elected back in 2019, I wasn't entirely sure myself. I can vividly remember, after the initial celebrations, frantically Googling to see if there was a job description somewhere. Like most people in a new role, I wanted to know what was expected and how best to represent residents who'd put their faith in me. The truth is, I didn't know my a*** from my elbow.
So all that considered, this is why I felt a bit sorry for a new Reform UK councillor at Kirklees Council, who admitted she felt pretty much the same way – and recently said so on a live feed of a recent council meeting. Sarah Wood said she didn't know what standing orders were, she didn't understand the constitution and added 'we do not necessarily know what we are voting for,' for good measure. Nigel Farage's new crop of councillors have been widely ridiculed for the now viral clip. But I actually think her mistake was being too honest.
Learning the Ropes
Of course, these new councillors – and there are thousands across the country from several parties – will be grappling with learning the ropes. And it's important that they get up to speed pretty quickly. For normal people – who have lives beyond town hall tedium – a constitution and standing orders are sets of rules governing how council meetings should function. Every council seems to have a constitution the size of a Bible – my own Middlesbrough's is no exception. It could stop a burglar in his tracks if lobbed at them hard enough. And rules are, of course, important. Meetings could descend into chaos without any.
But the truth is, what these councillors really need to get to grips with are the things they don't tell you in training. Now… I want to be careful to make clear that, in the main, council officers are hardworking professionals. But it is precisely this endless maze of weird procedures that the smiling local Government assassins can use to hide behind. That's not because they are sinister or corrupt – but because they hate to disrupt the status quo, which is precisely what new councillors are elected to do. After all, residents don't choose councillors due to their ability to cite procedural jargon, but because they believe they'll get things done.
Remember Who Is in Charge
So yes, learn the rules. But most of all, my message to those new councillors is to remember who is in charge. Your job isn't to get stuck in the council bureaucratic quagmire… It's to find a way through it.
I am very lucky to visit Spain regularly, thanks to my mum, who has an apartment in the stunning port of La Duquesa (if you've not been, then consider that today's travel tip). But for all the moaning we do in Britain, there is one thing we do better – and that's our public realm. 'What on Earth is a public realm?' my bewildered husband asked as I was chatting away about it, possibly thinking I was talking about some mystical portal. Well, in short, it's all of the areas that aren't privately owned – like paths and parks – and therefore up to local authorities to look after. It's really important that they are well-designed and clean. Now I know ours aren't perfect, but in parts of Spain they can feel a bit… higgledy-piggledy. I suspect years of rapid development have left everyone struggling to catch up on who is responsible for what. Perhaps it's time to take some of my own advice and contact the local councillor...
Do you remember your GCSEs? I do. And the cramming that went on after years of being told to stop talking by the teachers and to pay attention. So it feels like a bit of a shock that I now have a son, George, 15, who will be sitting his next year. During half term, I took to conducting five-minute revision sessions with him (thankfully on the sun loungers). It made me smile that nothing really changes when it comes to British comprehensive schools – his English texts are An Inspector Calls, Romeo and Juliet and A Christmas Carol, science is still obsessed with cells and history, is, well, history. Mitochondria anyone?
