Prospective Councillors Attend “Whistle-stop Tour Of Council Land”

Prospective candidates for the upcoming local government elections had the chance to gain an insight to the workings of Wrexham Council this evening as part of the authority’s ‘Be a Councillor’ event.

Held at the Guildhall this evening, there was standing room only with a packed out room of people attending the event to find out more about the role of a local councillor.

The event was the second of its kind to take place, with the first held in January 2012 – prior to the last local government elections.

The evening kicked off with a short speech by the Mayor, then a presentation by Dr Helen Paterson, the Chief Executive of Wrexham Council along with walk throughs of various explainer slides by senior Officers.

Dr Paterson spoke of the ethos behind Wrexham Council as an organisation, stating that the ‘how’ is as important as what is delivered, and that the values are not just for the officers of the Council but councillors as well.

Head of Corporate and Customer Services Trevor Coxon spoke, along with Head of Finance Mark Owen, giving overview insights to the practical nature of the Council. The scale of the organisation was compared to Kellogg’s UK in terms of turnover and the workforce size similar to the House of Fraser.

(This pic courtesy of Wrexham Council’s twitter – others are ones snapped by us)

Context of the financial climate was given, with potential councillors told that they would have to deal with the effects of austerity, as it was ‘not going away’. New councillors will have to ‘do more with squeezed resources’, interestingly that was placed against the increase in demand from the general public.

Dr Paterson wrapped up the presentations, describing it as a ‘whistle-stop tour of council land’ – before adding that the role of a councillor a ‘massive commitment’.

After the presentation downstairs attendees were invited upstairs to the main council chamber where several stands were setup each with a specific theme; ICT Provision, Renumeration, Democratic and Member services, Elections and Nominations, Communications, Finance, Councillors and a stall explaining various functions of Council departments.

Most popular was the electoral stand, followed closely with interaction with Councillors present.

During the evening we spoke with several current and prospective councillors – with several of the ‘incumbents’ telling us their main advice and questions were based around the time commitment to being a representative, with calls as late as 3am cited.

One pointed out that he perhaps gets three calls a day, however another councillor he knows could get three a month – perhaps competitively observing it depends what type of councillor you are!

Other existing councillors spoke to us of the campaigns that they had underway, be it with door knocking or ensuring their message is appearing online.

Prospective councillors explained how they were weighing up if they should stand or not, with the time needed to fulfil the role being the main issue citing as being the undecided factor.

One spoke of although he was aware of how the system works, he felt that things were tied up due to the Executive Board structure and was unsure on how much influence he would actually have.

Some prospective councillors who have already decided they will stand were also checking out the competition, trying to gauge who else was standing where, and what tactics were being deployed.

We spoke with one person who had noticed like we had that out of the around 60-70 people present only 15 were female – along with only a handful of ‘youngsters’.

As it was frustratingly observed, such events can only cater to those who wish to come along, however it did make us think of previous reform attempts that included term limits and youth councils.

One stall had the following sign, that shows how close the elections really are… are you registered to vote? Are you making sure your friends and family are, and will they turn out on polling day?

With the local government elections taking place on May 4th 2017, have you made sure that you are registered to vote...?