Soon it will be local election time, I think it's May 3rd and if all goes to plan this will be my final few weeks as a town councillor. I'm standing as a candidate in North ward, which is staunch conservative, and which was Colin Hodgesons' ward for many years. He is no longer with us, but it's highly unlikely that I will get elected, unless of course they like voting for a Colin to represent them.
The fact that the local elections for town councillors are decided along party political lines seems a complete nonsense to me, but that is the reality.
When I first walked through that oversized door into the big room, where we all sit to debate and wrestle with the big questions of the day, I was struck by the layout of the seating. This arrangement of a semi circle of school desks divided by a central aisle with the conservatives on the right and Labour on the left struck me then as archaic. In fact the furniture is certainly archaic, probably turned out somewhere in the distant past of the nineteenth century, not even the 20th.
And then there's the dias where the Mayor of the day sits with their deputy to one side, lording it over us like a courtroom judge on a dilapidated throne and on another piece of outdated oak furniture.
The "chamber" as it's pompously called has seating for, oh I don't know, about 40 or more councillors and a back row that can house perhaps another 20 people. This last row is often reserved for members of the public but on 99% of our meetings you'll be lucky if you see anyone in these seats. Oh, now that's not quite true as we do seem to have a couple of regular ladies, of a certain age, who come most weeks. What they find more exciting here than on radio 4 I've got no idea, maybe they both have a highly developed sense of humour and find our deliberations somewhat amusing and exciting. I was going to say perhaps they should get out more, but perhaps they do, this being the start of their week, they then build up slowly through the week with a literary group, a poem and a pint, culture at the Coro, and finish up the week on Saturday night at some rave or perhaps more apt, a wild ceilidh. Sundays will be spent in meditation no doubt, at the priory before starting back on Mondays with our lot. Although as we only do every fortnight, I wonder what they do on that fallow Monday, stay in with a bottle of gin perhaps, and contemplate the minutes of our last meeting.
Only joking Ladies, at least you bother to come which is more than can be said for the rest of the population.
I once suggested that we should get rid of these pews and replace them with something a bit more modern. At this suggestion one Tory councillor almost had a heart attack. You can't do that it's part of our heritage, it's our tradition. It's old and tatty, that's what it is. It is arranged in such a way that if the public should choose to attend they have to talk to our backs. Oh I know they are supposed to be addressing the Mayor but it has always felt rude and disrespectful to me, I always shift around and try to make eye contact, or at least let them know I'm listening to them.
And the fact that we have about 2/3rds of the seats empty doesn't look too good. This arrangement may have worked 50 years ago when we were Ulverston Urban District Council but today we only have 18 councillors in total, and the number of times we've all been present I could count on half a hand. I don't see any reason why we couldn't have a big table where we all face each other, at least we could then hear what we are saying. What we all seem to be doing is talking to the wall, not each other, apologies to the Mayor there, I didn't mean to implore that you were a wall, just my opinion of the archaic set up of our council chamber.
The one glaring thing that has stood out though is the lack of public participation. But then no wonder. Who knows that we're even meeting? There's some inconsequential bit of paper posted on a message board inside the town hall where nobody goes, or hardly anybody goes. We should have an "A" board outside on the pavement telling people that there's a meeting tonight. Oh but hang on, we may be contravening some bye law about blocking pavements, can't do that. Hey but we do have a web site now though, and it's all there, I suppose. I was responsible for that, one thing that I did manage to achieve, although how many people use it I don't know.
No, we're in a way a secret society, beavering away on your behalf, making very little difference to your lives. God knows, we try to be a force for good but often our suggestions are ignored by the big boys, and girls at SLDC who seem to steam roller through any policies that we disagree with. It all makes for a very frustrated bunch of councillors who over time just loose the will to fight with any real vigour.
Most have been there too long and seem to understand the protocols too well, that all they can ever suggest is that we write a strong letter, which ends up at the bottom of some in-tray at SLDC, or Cumbria county councils offices.
I really believe that we should have limited terms of office for town councillors. I think two should be enough, that's eight years. Would you believe some have been there for thirty years! That's far too long, your bound to get tired, we need vim and vigour, we need new blood coming in all the time, people with a passion who can make things happen, have new ideas, turn things around, be engaged.
Yes eight years is enough, which is why this May I don't want to be elected, , I've done my bit and now it's time to say goodbye.
The fact that the local elections for town councillors are decided along party political lines seems a complete nonsense to me, but that is the reality.
When I first walked through that oversized door into the big room, where we all sit to debate and wrestle with the big questions of the day, I was struck by the layout of the seating. This arrangement of a semi circle of school desks divided by a central aisle with the conservatives on the right and Labour on the left struck me then as archaic. In fact the furniture is certainly archaic, probably turned out somewhere in the distant past of the nineteenth century, not even the 20th.
And then there's the dias where the Mayor of the day sits with their deputy to one side, lording it over us like a courtroom judge on a dilapidated throne and on another piece of outdated oak furniture.
The "chamber" as it's pompously called has seating for, oh I don't know, about 40 or more councillors and a back row that can house perhaps another 20 people. This last row is often reserved for members of the public but on 99% of our meetings you'll be lucky if you see anyone in these seats. Oh, now that's not quite true as we do seem to have a couple of regular ladies, of a certain age, who come most weeks. What they find more exciting here than on radio 4 I've got no idea, maybe they both have a highly developed sense of humour and find our deliberations somewhat amusing and exciting. I was going to say perhaps they should get out more, but perhaps they do, this being the start of their week, they then build up slowly through the week with a literary group, a poem and a pint, culture at the Coro, and finish up the week on Saturday night at some rave or perhaps more apt, a wild ceilidh. Sundays will be spent in meditation no doubt, at the priory before starting back on Mondays with our lot. Although as we only do every fortnight, I wonder what they do on that fallow Monday, stay in with a bottle of gin perhaps, and contemplate the minutes of our last meeting.
Only joking Ladies, at least you bother to come which is more than can be said for the rest of the population.
I once suggested that we should get rid of these pews and replace them with something a bit more modern. At this suggestion one Tory councillor almost had a heart attack. You can't do that it's part of our heritage, it's our tradition. It's old and tatty, that's what it is. It is arranged in such a way that if the public should choose to attend they have to talk to our backs. Oh I know they are supposed to be addressing the Mayor but it has always felt rude and disrespectful to me, I always shift around and try to make eye contact, or at least let them know I'm listening to them.
And the fact that we have about 2/3rds of the seats empty doesn't look too good. This arrangement may have worked 50 years ago when we were Ulverston Urban District Council but today we only have 18 councillors in total, and the number of times we've all been present I could count on half a hand. I don't see any reason why we couldn't have a big table where we all face each other, at least we could then hear what we are saying. What we all seem to be doing is talking to the wall, not each other, apologies to the Mayor there, I didn't mean to implore that you were a wall, just my opinion of the archaic set up of our council chamber.
The one glaring thing that has stood out though is the lack of public participation. But then no wonder. Who knows that we're even meeting? There's some inconsequential bit of paper posted on a message board inside the town hall where nobody goes, or hardly anybody goes. We should have an "A" board outside on the pavement telling people that there's a meeting tonight. Oh but hang on, we may be contravening some bye law about blocking pavements, can't do that. Hey but we do have a web site now though, and it's all there, I suppose. I was responsible for that, one thing that I did manage to achieve, although how many people use it I don't know.
No, we're in a way a secret society, beavering away on your behalf, making very little difference to your lives. God knows, we try to be a force for good but often our suggestions are ignored by the big boys, and girls at SLDC who seem to steam roller through any policies that we disagree with. It all makes for a very frustrated bunch of councillors who over time just loose the will to fight with any real vigour.
Most have been there too long and seem to understand the protocols too well, that all they can ever suggest is that we write a strong letter, which ends up at the bottom of some in-tray at SLDC, or Cumbria county councils offices.
I really believe that we should have limited terms of office for town councillors. I think two should be enough, that's eight years. Would you believe some have been there for thirty years! That's far too long, your bound to get tired, we need vim and vigour, we need new blood coming in all the time, people with a passion who can make things happen, have new ideas, turn things around, be engaged.
Yes eight years is enough, which is why this May I don't want to be elected, , I've done my bit and now it's time to say goodbye.
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