I was going to post about something else today but I've written it for somewhere else. So I thought I'd give you a few thoughts about retiring as a councillor (I did consider writing about Carole Cadwalladr's TED talk but it is so utterly awful I'll save it for later when I've stopped giggling).
In a few days (13 as it happens) I finish as the councillor for Bingley Rural having had the pleasure and privilege of representing this gorgeous place for 24 years. It's an odd feeling with part of me still, so to speak, in the fray whilst another bit of me looks at the news, smiles, leans back and lets out a huge sigh of relief. Plus, come the 4th May, I won't have to explain to people that once a planning permission is granted that is, pretty much, it or that the council doesn't decide where speed cameras go or how environmental health law is very hard to apply to occasional and intermittent noise, odour or dust. It's not that I mind doing all this explaining why people can't have what they want just by speaking to the councillor but that it does rather grind you down after a while.
People keep asking me what I'm going to do and, in the best tradition of politicians, I keep ducking the question. Mostly I say "not going to meetings" given that attending meetings is pretty much the dominant function for your local councillor. I'm not being dismissive here because being good at going to meetings is not as easy as it seems. It's not just that you have to do the homework - read the papers, look back at the minutes of previous meeting, speak to colleagues - but you need some sort of purpose, a reason for you being at that meeting.
Are you going to the meeting to find something out or learn something? Not in the manner of formal training but to spend some time with someone who does know something (how much it costs to run a crematorium, what the law says about home schooling, if you need planning permission for a flagpole). This is the simplest purpose - it still needs preparation but mostly you're there to listen, ask intelligent questions and to leave more able to do the job of being a councillor.
Are you wanting somebody to do something? Quite often, your reason for being at a meeting is to try and persuade people to do something- make an investment, grant a licence, give a child a school place, fund a new playground. Here you need to be realistic, to have an idea as to whether there is a chance of getting what you want. If it's a proposal for 25 houses on the edge of a village that the planning officers recommend, you're more likely to lose than win - you need to make sure that you've told the people you're representing that this is the case, there's nothing worse than being all Grand Old Duke of York, marching folk up to the top of the hill only to march them, disappointed, back down again. On the other hand, the argument you're making might have officer support or other councillors might be persuaded of the merits - knocking down some old lean to barns and replacing them with a bungalow might be an improvement in the green belt, something councillors on a planning committee can be persuaded to support.
Are you looking for publicity? Yes folks, it's a dirty old world and us politicians like to get our names in the paper. Sometimes this is the only thing we can gain from being at a meeting. As ever, good publicity doesn't come about by accident, you'll need to make sure the press know (and give consideration to the possibility that they might not be as animated about the issue as you) and to decide what you're going to say or do. The old rules apply - make it easy for journalists because they are lazy, use human interest (personal experience, a constituent) and refer to other stories in the newspaper - there's nothing a journalist likes better than to have his or her work cited, even by a local councillor in a scrutiny meeting.
Are you at the meeting for a discussion? I know from speaking with council officers (some at least) that they enjoy discussions around their work at committee meetings. The process of scrutiny (a pretty clunky thing in most councils) allows discussion about the working of council policies, programmes and actions. You're going to learn something but also you're going to hopefully make policy better by encouraging officers to think through what they're doing (not all of them like this though). And sometimes, let's face it, we just want to make a political point - I knew the council was going to introduce a big Public Space Protection Order but the discussion around it allowed me to make a strong point that I consider these things an affront to civil liberties.
I know all this seems a little indulgent but I see too many councillors ill-prepared for meetings, either seeing their role as mere voting fodder or else just there for the sandwiches. Meetings are what we do as councillors and if we do them right (even when they drag on for hours of brain-numbing tedium) we can make a real difference. Good councillors will be able to look back - even if they've only ever been in opposition - and point to things they achieved: a traffic scheme here, a changed policy on fostering there, maybe some development in the ward or even a motion successfully steered through a full council. All because they've paid attention at meetings, planned what they're doing and had something of a strategy.
I'm retiring though. I've done enough meetings. I'm looking forward to sitting in the sunshine of our terrace pretending to read a book while my face gets as nut brown as my mum's was. I'll do some other stuff but that's a start...
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