What it’s like to be a councillor

Royal Borough: Views mixed on adversarial debates

New research conducted by a Maidenhead resident reveals what life is really like for elected representatives of the Royal Borough.

Andrew Ingram, who has conducted similar studies previously in his professional life, has spent the summer interviewing 12 councillors to discover what their work entails.

His interviewees included a mix of working status, gender and age, with all stating ‘some kind of desire to serve’ their fellow residents.

“The two big themes in this desire to serve were either to bring help to people who needed it or, more strategically, to effect change in a system which needed improvement,” Mr Ingram said in his report.

“Some reflected that their motivation was too idealistic at the start. Full of hope and ambition, and knowing little or nothing about the processes of local government, they found themselves

getting battered by the realities in the town hall.”

Many interviewees admitted a ‘degree of bewilderment and stress’ upon first entering the role, with some referencing the level of procedure involved within the local authority.

In his findings, Andrew found that there was ‘no set pattern’ for managing the workload faced by councillors, some of whom have to balance work commitments alongside their public duty.

A particular point of interest was what the report titled ‘the argy-bargy’, describing the political disputes that often make headlines and attract comments on social media.

Councillors were split on this issue; some described the ‘gladiatorial style of debate’ enjoyable, whilst others found it ‘excessive, distasteful and misplaced’. Others were more reluctantly accepting that such debate is a part of politics.

Interestingly, all five of the female councillors in the sample saw it as counterproductive. Discussing this with the Express, Mr Ingram said: “We’re used to seeing this [style of debate] on the telly, but it does sound like it can get very toxic and counterproductive.

“I was just struck by the way that the female councillors found it very counterproductive; it put them off doing the job quite frankly.

“In theory, the Royal Borough is 50 per cent male, 50 per cent female, but we’ve only got something like 25 per cent female councillors.

“I suspect their participation is probably being held back by this style of behaviour – there were plenty of people who thought it could be improved.”