Social Media comments and ‘old’ Councillors
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Posts
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Why is Ms Harper trying to make a point about the age of Councillors they are not self elected- she seems to have forgotten that it is the public who have elected THEIR representative. The age of Councillors is often down to people who have tome to carry out the role and it is nit appealing to younger people to stand for public office.
I agree about the principle of age and broader demographics but it is no good trying to take the message to the Guildhall you need to motivate people at community level and Political Parties need to do more to attract younger people. What has happened to Young Conservatives (anyone remember the club down the alley at the side of the Wynnstay), Young Socialist and Ms Harpers own Party – Plaid Ifanc
Political Parties have long forgotten how to engage with younger people and by default created a culture of older politicians.
It will be interesting at the next election in May 2022, to see if the new sixteen year old electors will actually come out and use their vote. Will they vote for the same people who have represented their ward, in some cases for over fifty years , or will they be looking for something new. Time will tell.
I’m not a fan of Plaid Cymru by any stretch of the imagination but Carrie Harper as an individual, makes a very valid point and I congratulate her on that.
I am myself a senior citizen but would like to think that I open to progression and change for the better, many on the Council are not, and yes, I do think that age plays a major factor in that.
I have watched how the Council has degenerated from a democratic organisation where every individual Councillor had an equal and meaningful contribution to make, to what can best be described as an oligarchy where decisions are made by a chosen few like minded individuals.
I see no chance of collective ownership of decisions made whilst this style if governance is tolerated.
Perhaps her statement should give us all food for thought and seriously think about who we elect as our representatives in 2022.
Only then, if we have a clear out of those who think their position is safe for as long as they desire, will we be able to say ‘Yes, I can support that’ when decisions are handed down that affect all our lives.Raising the Councillors allowance by over 16% , which is in the pipeline, is supposed to be needed to attract a better cross section of society as candidates. Perhaps the large salaries in reality are preventing Councillors from retiring, they can’t face losing the income!
One of the biggest issues at Local Councils is that there are so many ‘independent’ Council Members who cannot be brought to account as they don’t have a manifesto apart from statements about what they will do for ‘their’ own community. At least when Party politics was stronger they put out a manifesto and clear commitments – if they did not deliver then they could be challenged.
It would not be so bad if all the Independents once they had formed their Group in order to claim the higher paid Executive Board positions put out a full statement of intent. Also many Councillors think their role is just to deal with their own community issues they fail in taking on corporate responsibilities for such things as Education, Social Services etc.
Usually it is best to make your case by putting forward arguments based on principles and facts rather than making sweeping generalizations about people based on the clothes they choose to wear. These kinds of remarks feed into the current trend of disrespecting people who disagree with you and othering them which encourages hate and harassment via social media and people in politics being threatened or worse.
Considering the number of people who vote in local elections, usually around 20 – 30%, the question remains how to motivate the other 70 – 80% to consider voting because if we only got turn out up to the levels at general elections (i.e. 70%), any popular newcomer could easily win more votes than any of the current incumbents in the council chamber.
Councillors get pensions when they retire based on their time in office, position and salary, so their imcome does not reduce to nothing when they go, especially if they have been councillors for a good length of time.
I believe that not all Councillors pay into the Pension Fund. Surely if you don’t pay in you can’t take out.
The Councillors are part of a non contributory pension scheme- i.e. they don’t have to pay anything the amount that goes in is a % of the wage/allowance.
Re the % of voters if you break that down most Councillors are elected with less than 15% in their favour
As someone who “retired “ from the council in 2017 ,after a total of 20 years I can assure your correspondents I reciece(d) no pension from the Clwyd Pension pot.You had to apply for it and I , and I believe most others ,didn’t.
On the general point Ms Harper makes if she was more of a historian of WCBC she would find a gender balance more to her liking in the early days of WCBC , with female councillors taking major portfolios, such as Social Services and Education.To date the only female leader of the council has been Labours Shan Wilkinson. I look forward to another female leader in May 2022 , and no Carrie it won’t be you ! I agree that we need a more diverse council , be that gender ,age and occupation. The councils have a job of work to do on such as times of meetings, arrangements to fit with modern working practices and much more . Political parties need to build on the Welsh government’s extension of democracy to 16 & 17 year old so the candidates they present to the electorate is more diverse. In truth Ms Harper’s foray is just a rather transparent plug for her Gresford candidate. Gresford is perfectly capable of selecting a good candidate without such a plug !
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