Could you become a local councillor?

In local government Liberal Democrats are working hard for local people, standing up for our communities and making sure everyone knows the difference the Lib Dems can make. As Lib Dem councillors we are proud to serve our communities and set high standards for ourselves. We are part of shaping the future of our communities, villages, towns and cities. We also are hugely important in supporting and upholding the principles of liberal democracy in action. Local government is undergoing huge changes and challenges. It is more important than ever that Lib Dems are there to remind everyone that local government is there for local people. Representing local people and campaigning with them is what we do best.

You may already be a campaigner, community activist, involved in your local church or mosque, or a local school governor. You might help to deliver leaflets or organising events. If so, you already have a great basis for taking up public office and becoming a Lib Dem councillor. But ultimately, if you really care about your area, and want work to make it the best place it can be, becoming a Lib Dem councillor could be for you.

In our area there are three tiers of local authority – county, district and town or parish.  Each has different responsibilities, West Sussex County Council is social care, highways (so pot holes), education, children and families, libraries, etc.  Download the free West Sussex app from your app store to report potholes and other problems.  If you browse the relevant council websites, review committee papers and minutes all available on line, scrutiny and planning meetings, details of planning applications are online at Mid Sussex Council – for major planning applications the design and access statement and submissions from interested parties. Mid Sussex District Council is responsible for planning, refuse collection, housing, leisure; and Burgess Hill Town Council supports our local community, the town centre, allotments and the burial ground.

    The current 2021 elections are for the County Council so prospective candidates have already been selected.   An allowance is paid to councillors so this should be treated as a part time job, much of the work is flexible other than attendance at council meetings (although you have a statutory right for your employer to give you time off) but the responsibility is as much putting forward the views of your area, dealing with casework and representing the council.   Before you become a councillor you need to become a campaigner, there is much you can do as a concerned member of the public, sign up for the appropriate council newsletter, respond to consultation exercises, planning applications and report issues with specific potholes and other issues directly to the council as well as raising these with elected member. 

    To become a councillor, you need to be elected, usually as a member of a political party, although possibly as an independent but as a councillor you should be part of a network so acting alone makes it significantly harder.  There will also be opportunities over the next two years to become a town councillor or district councillor.  Joining a political party will give you the opportunity to become involved in campaigning and to speak in more detail to local councillors.  Each party will have a support network for campaigners and councillors, for example https://www.aldc.org/ .

    Becoming a local councillor:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/get-involved/take-part/become-a-councillor
    https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/about-the-council/county-councillors/become-a-county-councillor/

    Central and South Mid Sussex County Local Committee –  a local committee of West Sussex County Council:

    https://westsussex.moderngov.co.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=183

    Mid Sussex District Council – details of meetings

    http://midsussex.moderngov.co.uk/ieDocHome.aspx?Categories=

    Burgess Hill Town Council

    https://www.burgesshill.gov.uk/meetingsagendasminutes

    Sussex Police Commissioner – time for change

    Elections for the Sussex police and crime commissioner take place in May and Liberal Democrats candidate Jamie Bennett, a councillor on Arun District Council, is the Lib Dems’ candidate for the election.  Mr Bennett said, “I want to bring back community policing, get drugs off our streets by cutting County Lines and deliver a fairer deal for Sussex.

    • Cllr Jamie Bennett (centre left)

    “Theresa May’s failed police and crime commissioner experiment has been a disaster for Sussex policing. We have seen the police force’s share of our council tax bills rocket, yet we have nothing to show for our money but rising crime, more drugs and fewer police on our streets.

    “As a Lib Dem councillor in Arun, I have seen at first hand the impact of withdrawing community policing and increasing lawlessness on our streets. These have been exacerbated by Conservative cuts to youth services, mental health and road safety at West Sussex County Council.”

    It is particularly important we have a change of commissioner when we have seen ongoing above inflation council tax increases to pay for the service culminating in this year’s 7.5% increase – local residents are being left to pick up the bill of the current commissioner’s excesses.

    A sustainable economic growth strategy?

    Tonight ’s scrutiny meeting focused on Mid Sussex District Council’s sustainability strategy or rather the sustainable economic strategy, as it wishes to merge economic strategy with its sustainability strategy.   It will be challenging to ensure that economic issues do not dominate – I still have my doubts about combining these targets given the different and sometimes conflicting aims – the details now need to be gone through by a working party. 

    I was pleased to see the Council take on my suggestion of getting environmental issues explicitly considered when the council makes a formal decision, in terms of a section on any relevant report to outline environmental considerations.   However, the existing Council policy of carbon neutral by 2050 is somewhat unambitious, particularly as West Sussex County Council has committed to being carbon neutral by 2030, and my original attempt to get a similar commitment from the District Council in 2019 was not supported by the Conservative administration. 

    The Coronavirus has had an impact across all council services including recycling and I highlighted the Council’s current performance on the percentage of domestic waste going to recycling, this has fallen back slightly to 42% when comparing with the target in its strategy of 50% by 2020 and a national average of 45%.  More time spent at home and charity shop closures have perhaps meant more rubbish being generated.  However, the Council has languished at near this rate for several years so further work needs to be done to promote reuse and recycling. 

    That is not to deny that positives such as the small electrical waste collection on the same day as the refuse collection, and the possibility of an expansion to include textile recycling would be a good addition, as well as a separate food waste collection, which was timetabled for a pilot to begin last year, but delayed due to the pandemic.   However, there may also be painful decisions to reduce the frequency of refuse collections if the council is to find savings to finance the current gap in its income, although these have not been muted yet.

    Unfair Council Tax needs reform

    Mid Sussex District Council tonight agreed a budget which means total council tax for the average band D tax payer is increasing by 4.9% or £92, and is now over £2,000 for some parishes in Mid Sussex! However most of this is levied by the County Council and Police Authority and the element for Liberal Democrat controlled Burgess Hill Town Council did not increase at all.

    Whilst I support the District Council precept this year as Covid has put big holes in the budget, particularly relating to the cost of our leisure centres, where it agreed to use £500,000 from reserves to pay towards a shortfall in running costs, the Council’s share comprises just 9% of the total precept, but the total cost levied by all authorities is equivalent to a third of what the average employed person living in Mid Sussex pays in income tax.

    I put forward an amendment to highlight the gross unfairness of Council Tax and the need for reform, and to urge the leader of the Council to write to the government making the case for reform.

    Unfortunately the Conservatives voted against it despite their national so called levelling up agenda and it was defeated.

    Low earners pay a much greater proportion of their income as council tax which can often be more than they pay in income tax yet not necessarily qualify for any discount – although you should always check your entitlement for council tax benefit if you are on low income or for the various discounts that exist. It is also possible to request payment over 12 months rather than the standard 10

    Council tax bands in England are still based on property values in 1991 –30 years ago. Since then the average house price in the South East has risen by over five times. The most valuable property (band H) attracts just three times as much tax as the least valuable, despite being worth at least eight times as much. Because there is no further increment after H, a person in a £600,000 house pays the same as a person in a £5 million house.

    There are growing disparities between those who have maintained their incomes during lockdown, and those less fortunate who have suffered financially or are in the squeezed middle or “not quite poor” who don’t qualify for any benefit. It is younger people, those who are just starting out that it hits the hardest, paying a much greater proportion of their income.

    The unfairness will only continue to get worse as time elapses, solutions such as revaluation, adding more tiers at the higher end or replacing with a more progressive tax system are all viable options. Yet for Mid Sussex Conservatives their main objection to the proposal was encapsulated by Cllr Webster – “on the clear basis of fairness I can’t support this at all”!

    https://www.midsussex.gov.uk/revsandbens/council-tax/

    All Mid Sussex play areas to reopen

    Following Liberal Democrat pressure to ensure all play areas were reopened, I am pleased the Council has now announced it will be reopening all playgrounds from 29 March. In the light of the government announcing its roadmap out of lockdown the Council has now committed to reopening all play areas, outdoor gyms, skate parks and ball courts from this date. Further they plan to reopen the Council’s three leisure centres- initially for individual exercise (including gym and swimming) from 12 April, before phasing in group exercise in line with the government’s roadmap. The Council had previously claimed it would cost £212,000 to provide additional cleaning resources to enable them to open all play areas in order to justify their previous decision to only keep half open during the lockdown.

    New pathway means no more wet feet!

    West Park Nature Reserve, Malthouse Lane

    The paved pathways at West Park Nature Reserve are now open for use, albeit without markings to separate pedestrians from cyclists which have still to be added, but it represents a welcome all weather route between Malthouse Lane and the Rugby Club (particularly remembering the last time I walked the route and came away with soaked ankles!) .  Walking locally has taken on a new context in the last year, and whilst covering any of our woodlands with tarmac should never be taken lightly, the level of use of these routes demands it, particularly as it confines users to the path as opposed to any ever widening muddy trail that it replaces.  The improvements are part of the Place and Connectivity Programme putting in a number of new pathways or enhancements around the town, not least the new pathway from St Wilfrids Road to Wivelsfield Station where work started this week.

    Branch Action!

    We are all spending more time walking locally, often on pavements when the weather is bad, that often highlights overhanging branches or other obstructions that can make navigating our pavements more difficult. We can all be good neighbours in taking responsibility for the area around our house even if it is just ensuring it is free from any discarded rubbish. I took action to lop off these overhanging branches on Maple Drive to make this pavement safer for taller users (after asking permission from the relevant householder).

    Its time to reopen all our play areas

    We are lucky to have so many play areas in Mid Sussex, the Council manages 123 formal play areas and whilst these were all closed in the first lockdown, the largest play areas were reopened in the autumn and with suitable modifications where needed there has been no issues with their operation.  With the current lockdown and home schooling we all appreciate having somewhere local to exercise, and for our children to play.  However, 66 Council operated local play areas are still closed and there has been no further progress in reopening these, with the Council claiming the cost of enhanced cleaning as a barrier.  Yet most of these play areas have no more risk factors than the larger sites and are often those most conveniently situated for children to play.  I think its time the Council reopened them and have asked what this would cost as it needs to be a higher priority.

    Theobalds Road bridle path

    Walked down Theobalds Road along the bridle path to Fox Hill Village, its current state shows why Mid Sussex District Council did a U-turn on its proposals to turn it into a paved cycle path given the cost of ensuring proper drainage! However anyone who walks it regularly would have been able to tell them, as well as questioning the environmental effects of such a proposal.  Their would be a significant financial and environmental cost to improving, particularly for the section by the stream (further complicated because it is in Lewes District which would not contribute to the cost).

    Theobalds Road Greenway

    Clair Hall legal fiasco

    The decision last year of Conservatives on Mid Sussex District Council to close Clair Hall without regard to a public consultation and their failure to heed Liberal Democrat concerns about the closure was revealed to have cost taxpayers £27,000 in legal advice. As a result the Council has had to commit to new public consultation on its future.  The Council’s Conservative administration ignored Liberal Democrat requests for the Council’s Scrutiny Committee to review the decision which could ultimately have saved some of these costs.  Conservatives didn’t follow Council rules, and cost the Council dearly, yet don’t want the Council to consider what lessons can be learnt from the debacle.  The venue is currently being used as a vaccination centre, but the Council needs to make clear in any consultation that there is a realistic option of reopening the hall to the public.  The Council needs to engage with Haywards Heath residents interested in running the hall as a community asset which could secure its future.   Conservatives have form here, they shut the Martlets in Burgess Hill without establishing a replacement, and now most of Mid Sussex is without any major performance venue.