Is It Worth It?
TONY COLLINS, Green Councillor shares his experiences at Hastings Borough Council
“Would you consider standing as a councillor?”
Julia Hilton, sole Green member of Hastings Borough Council, grinned at me before turning back to her poached egg.
I joined Hastings Green Party out of a desire to do something useful in retirement. All my life I have been an environmentalist, at least privately: forty years as a publisher consumes a lot of wood pulp, so I don’t have great credentials. But the politicians of the UK have a shoddy record when it comes to caring for our planet. I wanted to do what I could.
In 2021, Hastings Greens were a small bunch of committed enthusiasts, but few in number. “We don’t have many resources,” Julia acknowledged, “so we need to concentrate on a few key wards. The members will have to vote on it, but I think you would be a good fit for Central St Leonards.”
A few weeks later, duly selected, I knocked on my first door as a candidate. The Green Party punches well above its weight in elections, profiting from dedicated members, a well-honed approach and shrewd target selection. It was stunning, and humbling to discover people I had barely met, willing to campaign, distribute leaflets, and write stories on my behalf.
I was standing against a well-liked, diligent and familiar Labour candidate. As the campaign intensified and Green posters appeared, my opponent grew frustrated. ‘You are going to split the vote and let in the Tories,’ she shouted at me when our paths crossed one morning.
In the event, I won by 31 votes. Labour insisted on three recounts. The Conservatives came a distant third. I was one of three successful Green candidates in 2022, the others being Amanda Jobson, in Gensing and Glenn Haffenden in Tressell, who achieved an astonishing result, increasing the Green vote from 19% to 56%. Glenn is now the council leader.
What does a local councillor do?
Rather a lot. You are the human interface with local government. If you are reasonably assiduous, the opportunities are legion.
Over the last few days, I have represented a frustrated claimant to the housing team; arranged for weeds to be cleared; alerted the planning enforcement team to the inactivity of a developer; called in graffiti, litter, fly tipping, potholes, blocked drains, and upturned kerb stones; attended the opening of a new shop; asked (at the request of the local cops) for some bushes to be cut back in Warrior Square to discourage drug dealers; taken action over a collapsing wall; persuaded British Telecom to remove a redundant telephone box; and convinced Southern Water to replace two dead trees.
That is just the ward work. Then, because I am also chair of the Foreshore Trust and hence a member of cabinet, I have participated in complex discussions over a refurbished play area, beach cleaning, staff appointments, and reviewed and critiqued long policy documents and finance reports. I have also sought to resolve the endless wrangling over the boating lake, currently mired in legal negotiations.
The most serious frustration is the lack of resources, caused principally by the steady rise in homelessness.
Homelessness is on the up right across the country, and in many cases, councils have to step in. In Hastings, payments to landlords for temporary accommodation consume over 40% of the council’s budget. If not for this single factor, the streets would be sparkling, and street wardens would leap on every scrap of litter. As it is, the council has been steadily chewing through its reserves: in the last year, by dint of adroit financial management by officers and the steely resolve of Cllr Darren Mackenzie, who holds the finance portfolio, we broke even.
We are about to start the new round of budget negotiations. They will be tough.
Hastings is one of the poorest towns in the south east, with an ageing population and limited employment opportunities. This has impacted health provision and affected local schools. Most of our council tax goes to East Sussex, which wrestles with ballooning debts caused by the demands on adult and child social care.
Local services are stumbling, right across the country. The government has rather bravely seized this nettle by setting about Local Government Reorganisation, certainly the biggest administrative shake-up of the last fifty years. This is happening nationwide. Locally, the proposal is to abolish Hastings Borough Council, as well as Eastbourne, Wealden, Lewes, Rother and East Sussex councils. In their place will be the East Sussex Unitary Authority, which will provide almost all local services. (There are other models under consideration, but this is the most likely.) Similar Authorities will be created in West Sussex, and in Brighton and Hove. All three will fall under a new Mayoral Strategic Authority, with sweeping regional powers.
There may perhaps be a residual Hastings Town Council to sort out local matters such as bin collections.
There are obvious advantages. A regional authority of this size (the three authorities together exceed 1.7 million people) has considerable negotiating power, able to strike deals with big employers. There would be no delays caused by differing software. There would be efficiencies of scale. Duplications could vanish. Citizens would never need to waste time wondering whether a service falls under county or borough. The region might prosper.
The most obvious downside is the democratic deficit. At present Hastings has 32 councillors, two for each ward. Under this plan there will probably be 16, one for each ward. Those 16 councillors will be part of a far larger authority, with well over 100 councillors. Powers will devolve from Westminster, but control will diminish at street level. Planning, licensing, housing and other services currently supplied by HBC will become the responsibility of the new authority.
Will Hastings be lost to sight in this bright future? Or could it become the new administrative centre for the entire region? Cllrs Haffenden and Hilton, as leader and deputy leader, are fighting as hard as they can for our voice to be heard in the complex and sometimes acrimonious discussions.
Is it worth being a councillor?
There are genuine privileges.
The first privilege is that you directly affect your neighbours’ lives, hopefully for the better. From the minutiae of street cleaning to the macro stuff of policy decisions, your efforts and ideas make a contribution.
The second is to meet so many fascinating people. My fellow councillors include a burlesque dancer and the former governor of two provinces in Iraq. My constituents include the senior security officer for a Swiss multinational and several nationally recognised artists.
The third is to work with some outstanding council officers. Very few join local government for the money: the wages are not great. So why do it? From observation, there is a strong spirit of service. They care about the town and its residents. Most of the officers I meet put in hours of unpaid overtime and are immensely conscientious. That the creaking and underfunded system works at all is a tribute to their willingness to go the extra mile.
Council staff are regularly pilloried on social media. If you are dissatisfied with a council officer, think for a moment about their impossible workload. Then reflect that most officers live in town. They are your neighbours. There is a strong protocol that officers should not respond to comments, partly for their own protection. This doesn’t mean they don’t read them. Bear this in mind when someone slags off the council. The person under attack still has to turn up to work the next day and do their best with the resources available. After three years as a councillor, I am frankly impressed.
We are now preparing for the next round of local elections. The Greens – and no doubt other parties – are recruiting candidates. If you think you might have what it takes, please consider putting yourself forward. We need you to represent your town.
Tony Collins is a Green councillor for Central St Leonards, and Chair of the Foreshore Trust.
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