Lessons for the future

May 2 is a poignant day for me as it is my final day as an elected Borough Councillor having represented Arborfield for 27 years.

My time was roughly divided from being a Conservative and then an independent Councillor.

I came into local politics with two main aims and that was to do my best for Arborfield while also making Wokingham Borough Council, then a District Council a better organisation. I hope I have been successful on my first aim but on the second one sadly I believe I have failed.

Wokingham, as a District Council in 1997, was a laid back organisation which seemed to recognise the importance of its role in serving its residents.

When it became a Borough Council that changed and slowly but steadily it became an inward-thinking selfcentred organisation that appears to see protecting its own image as more important than its role to support residents.

The vast majority of the Borough Council and the Borough Councillors are excellent and it has been my privilege to work with them all. While this is the case the Borough Council’s constitution is not written in a way that encourages excellence.

Weak leadership at times and a very badly written constitution which supports Officers at the expense of your elected councillors and residents does not help.

The Borough Council is now in the process of rewriting its constitution and this is a real opportunity to right the wrongs in the existing constitution.

The new constitution must be guided by common law and it must recognise all (Officers, Councillors and residents) as being of equal standing.

If there was one word of advice I would offer new and old councillors and that is to ensure that the new constitution is fair and balanced and treats everyone with fairness and equality. An independent audit of the final document would help cement transparency and fairness.

Residents come into local politics for an assortment of reasons. It can be a first step to a parliamentary career or it might be a care for local issues and a willingness to try and influence local events.

Both are honourable aims. A political party, as I found out has many advantages from mentoring to support in a campaign along with practical help with canvassing etc.

The downside is one has to toe a party political line which one may not agree with as I did.

Being Independent has advantages as it is not tied to any political ideology but at a price.

Being independent on a singlemember ward is manageable but the change to three-member wards has seriously undermines the ability of Independent or residents action groups to contest elections.

In Parliament being represented by one MP has merit where being represented but three Councillors has many pitfalls which I have no doubt will become apparent. Time will tell.

There are many examples where residents are unhappy with the Council. History would suggest that fighting ones corner via the current questions, motions or petitions at Council is a waste of time.

Local politics as practised by Wokingham Borough Council, using the executive model which centres all the power into about 10 Councillors, is not a good example of the best case of democracy.

The ruling parties political ideology will rule and, in the end, the elected back bench councillors role is just lobby fodder to the ruling executive.

Some Councils have moved to a new model called the ‘NEW’ committee model.

This adds to the old committee system the right to invite residents on to it to cover specific items. This could be a way to creating a more transparent and open Council.

This model would help reduce the exec power and it would certainly be much more democratic than the present Executive model.

In Wokingham recently I have seen cases where Planning Officers overrule their own Officers something I have not seen before. It makes one wonder if the planning model operated by Wokingham Borough should be re-examined with a view to improving its performance.

How to improve the Borough Council overall is the question.

Move away from the Executive model would be a first step but also the drafting of a new constitution that recognises the equal rights of Officers, Members and our residents would be the real way forward.

If this were to happen then perhaps my 27 years as a Councillor would not have been a waste of time.

Gary Cowan, now former

Borough Councillor for Arborfield at Wokingham

Borough Council.