What makes a good councillor?

[fake]

It would be nice to have a Councillor that acts on behalf of the voters and not on behalf of his/her party political line. To go to a Council meeting and hear a Councillor say to another Councillor "we are not here to appease the tenants, but follow Council policy" tends to put you off them.

 

They seem to act in the same way as MP's in that they toe the party line, are "whipped" into place once elected and don't care much about the voters. It then becomes about keeping their own jobs intact and the voters wishes become second place.

[L00b]

It would be nice to have a Councillor that acts on behalf of the voters and not on behalf of his/her party political line.

It would be nicer still, to have a Councillor that doesn't misrepresent her party political line as the voters' interest.

 

Last Saturday morning, a local Labour councillor and cohorts were asking passing people to sign a petition for "saving Worksop's hospital" (quote) when the text of the petition (for those too-few souls smart or wary enough to read first what they are being asked to sign) was in fact a blanket refusal of the Government's NHS policy (no reference whatsoever to any hospital, never mind the local one).

 

She wasn't best pleased with my suggestion, after she requested (not so politely, actually) that I inform my wife (who had signed the petition without reading it, and walked on) that I had not signed the petition after all

[denlin]

Im a Labour man and vote Labour in general elections, but in local council elections I vote Libdem because unfortunatly, some of the Labour people in Sheffield are a bit of a shower and I dont trust them.

 

I've some news my friend the Labour party is no more, the sad demise of John Smith finished it off. The shower that now masquerade as Labour would have Kier Hardie spinning in his grave:rant::rant:

[andikay]

It would be nice to have a Councillor that acts on behalf of the voters and not on behalf of his/her party political line. To go to a Council meeting and hear a Councillor say to another Councillor "we are not here to appease the tenants, but follow Council policy" tends to put you off them.

 

They seem to act in the same way as MP's in that they toe the party line, are "whipped" into place once elected and don't care much about the voters. It then becomes about keeping their own jobs intact and the voters wishes become second place.

 

I agree

 

We had a mainly labour council, they all always voted the same so there wasn’t much point in having them all, we may as well have had just one.

 

Then we managed to get a majority independent council, the more experience labour councillors did everything they could to discredit the independents, and still always voted the same.

 

Now we are back to a majority labour council because some of the independents have become Labour and some independents didn’t stand for re election because of the bullying they received.

 

We have four councillors all from the same family, again not much point in having four when they act as one. It’s even more annoying that they don’t work; they contribute nothing to the pot of money that they spend on crap.

 

I would rather keep the money I contribute and have no councillors.

[Arguendo]

How can three short paragraphs be too long to read? Properly spelt, punctuated and arranged in neat, bite-sized chunks. Are you three sharing a bowl? .

 

Thanks rubydazzler but in fairness to the TLDR comments I did edit it after their replies, I discarded about a third, I was up until the early hours bored & got carried away with the keyboard, but again thank you.

 

I think it all stopped because people today seem to resent it, call it overkill and don't want to be disturbed in their homes. I was still doing all the things you mention in 2004 , but whatever time you call, there's some TV programme or meal that you're interrupting and annoying people.

 

It becomes self defeating in the end, other times, other customs.

 

Point taken, I myself feel a lot of people only get involved in politics when things go wrong or not happy about certain issues, but if we look at the Lib Dems not just locally but nationally prior to the general election, they through their road shows & not just at universities but in town across the UK caused an immense amount of euphoria in getting people interested in politics. People I've known for many years who had voted either Labour or conservatives were beginning to sit up & listen to the Lib dems, in fact many went on to vote Lib Dem.

 

I was at Derby's Mayor Making celebration yesterday, and was utterly horrified by the attitude of the Labour contingent, not even applauding the work done by the last Mayor during his term of office. Whether or not you share political views, I thought the office of Mayor was apolitical. The Labour group imho, showed itself to be quite ignorant.

 

It’s disgusting & not anything to do with politics, why people get personal is beyond me, I do vaguely remember some years back under Jan Wilson I believe, a story which surfaced about researchers of some kind going around Manchester university trying to rake up dirt on councillor Scriven, nothing to do with his politics but regarding his personal life. Character destruction whoever carries it out has no place in politics, judge people/councillors on their actions, failures and achievements’ whilst in office or campaigning to take office.

 

 

My local councillor is a Lib Dem. He's worked tirelessly for years and you can always find him helping out or attending public events.

 

And in the "Focus" newsletters he personally delivers every couple of months he doesn't once mention any other party or make any point scoring.

 

And for that he has my respect and sympathy that ignorant fools would try and vote him out because he's loosely associated with the Lib Dem party.

 

Thankfully he won last month, but his majority was less this time.

 

I totally agree with you, but this goes to show what I’m saying, it's because of his hard work & relationship with the electorate that he kept his seat, & held in high respect.

 

This is not to say many other candidates of all persuasions didn’t work hard, I personally feel that the recent local elections are a protest vote, for one reason or another.

 

The student fees issue was possibly one of the main reasons of the Lib dem decline in Sheffield, although each Lib dem area might have a different reason, however if a candidate wants to regain the electorate support they've got to get out there, speak to the electorate ascertain their reason & understanding; no doubt there's a lot of anger by certain elements of the electorate, but face to face discussion & explanation, I feel will go a long way.

[Green Web]

Why do we need so many Councillors anyway? To me it just seems like cushy jobs for the boys, I think they should be a big part of the cuts, after all they're public sector workers whom nobody shall miss.

[Green Web]

 

I would rather keep the money I contribute and have no councillors.

 

me too, Councillors and MP's need us more than we need them.

[rubydazzler]

me too, Councillors and MP's need us more than we need them.

The main problem I can foresee if you did away with the elected office of local councillor is that you would have the employees running the whole show to their own agenda, which is not often in tune with the manifesto of the elected party, or the electorate.

 

You may not agree but the whole point of having councillors at all is that they're there to represent YOU, the electorate and citizens. The amount of input may vary and some may take it more seriously than others, but that is their only reason for being.

 

Believe me, if it wasn't for the presence of councillors on various boards, quangos and in the Chamber, many things would present that you wouldn't like, all dreamed up by council employees, or officers, as they like to be called.

 

In the interests of independent representation, I'd like to see a proportion of councillors replaced by local citizens called upon to do their civic duty by random selection, rather like jury service. As most of the posters seem to think that councillors shouldn't receive any remuneration, they'd do the work gratis and in their spare time, maybe taking on the evening public meetings etc. I think that'd throw up some very interesting situations.

[max]

It would be nice to have a Councillor that acts on behalf of the voters and not on behalf of his/her party political line. To go to a Council meeting and hear a Councillor say to another Councillor "we are not here to appease the tenants, but follow Council policy" tends to put you off them.

 

They seem to act in the same way as MP's in that they toe the party line, are "whipped" into place once elected and don't care much about the voters. It then becomes about keeping their own jobs intact and the voters wishes become second place.

 

As I've pointed out on here before, Labour councillors stand up and fight for their wards at Labour Group meetings. Once consensus on an action is reached this then becomes policy and, at full council and other public meetings, all Labour councillors are expected to follow this policy. This way, the Party shows a united face to the electorate. Other parties, which do not have this convention, have been known to have very public arguments among themselves over how council services are supplied.

[Tony]

As I've pointed out on here before, Labour councillors stand up and fight for their wards at Labour Group meetings. Once consensus on an action is reached this then becomes policy and, at full council and other public meetings, all Labour councillors are expected to follow this policy. This way, the Party shows a united face to the electorate. Other parties, which do not have this convention, have been known to have very public arguments among themselves over how council services are supplied.

 

Wouldn't it be better if they fight for their citizens when asked?

 

I don't give a stuff about what your Labour Group consensus wants. Councillors are elected to act for citizens, not wards and not the consensus at a Labour Party meeting.

 

In any case, what the hell has the Labour Group with got to do with councillors actions? Does paying a fiver a year to the Labour Party give me a bigger voice then simply being a citizen of Sheffield - it seems so from what you just said.