A Day in the Life of a Councillor!

Posted By: William Hobhouse
Date Posted: 03/09/2009

I get the impression that readers are interested to get a feel for the day to day work of a Councillor, so here goes for Thursday 3rd September 2009.

Into my factory at 7.30am to run production which finished at 11.30. In between time, I rang 2 of my Lib Dem Council colleagues to discuss our different approaches we had to the Council’s Pay and Grading settlement. We had all had a really interesting discussion the previous evening at the Policy Committee about the options for the Council at this late stage in the process. Everything to do with Pay and Grading is strictly confidential, so it’s difficult to discuss, but its implications are massive. (Readers can look at my Councillor Diary from November 2008 on the subject).

At midday, I had arranged a meeting with Highways to go through all the schemes funded for the Bamford ward, and to discuss their implementation. Highways schemes are notorious for long lead times. For example, I told my residents that surface dressing of Woodtop Avenue and Malvern Street West had been approved at the Action Committee in June. The reality is different. Woodtop will be resurfaced next year, not this year; and Malvern Street West may not even be done next year – it depends on over or underspends on other resurfacing projects. To cap it all, Woodlands Avenue, which was never on the programme at all, was surface dressed this year as an emergency measure. Staying on top of all these issues is critical to being a good ward councillor.

At 2pm I was in the Lib Dem Offices finishing off some printing and folding of a flyer for my Councillor surgery this Saturday. Followed by a drive to Sudden Village to deliver it in and between the rain. Met a few residents, some of whom I knew! Always a pleasure!

No meetings for once in the evening, so worked through the emails. About 30 today. Also wrote a letter to the Observer to explain what we’ve done on the Jamie Oliver inspired Rochdale Food Project, in response to a critical letter suggesting all spin and no substance. Which in this case would be a very thin gruel.