I suspect the quality of candidates prepared to get involved in local politics is unsatisfactory. In rural communities a paternal squire (he or she) may shoulder the burden.
They are not always appreciated.
“His ancestors have been lords of the manor for almost 1,000 years. But a rebellion by villagers has now ousted Lord Greville Howard from his role at the head of his local parish council. The 82-year-old Tory peer has quit as chairman of Castle Rising parish council – following 35 years in the post – with an attack on newcomers to the village who had increasingly opposed his leadership. His departure comes amid growing tension between members on the tiny authority.” (Eastern Daily Press, 30th November 2023)
A friend with a sense of duty attends meetings of the Residents’ Association for her block of flats. She finds them unedifying and, with a shudder, I recall similar meetings I went to more than forty years ago. But the important thing is to take part – to have a dog in the fight as my friend puts it.
In truth, small groups on a parish council may be maddening but they cannot do much harm. Where Trouble arises is with larger authorities governed by elected representatives with as much business sense as Bertie and less common sense. They enter into crazy commercial transactions – sometimes so risky they lead to bankruptcy; sometimes just irrelevant to their core responsibilities. My local council wants to borrow up to £5 million from the local voters, paying 4.8% fixed rate interest for five years. To put this in context the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham this year has a net budget of £185 million. Is the council reckless? I don’t think so. I think it’s a naked bribe for votes that would put a 19th century Rotten Borough to shame.
The London Mayor stands for re-election in May and has announced something straight out of the Boris Johnson playbook of venality. He’s proposing to make travel on Fridays off-peak. Here’s his weaselly justification.
• Off-peak journeys on Fridays could transform the morning commute for Londoners and provide a welcome further boost to London’s economy
• Midweek Tube ridership is now at up to 85% compared to pre-pandemic levels and is continuing to grow, but Friday ridership remains lower at around 73%
• The move forms part of wider plans to ‘revitalise Fridays’, working with businesses, the hospitality sector and other key stakeholders to encourage more Londoners back into the city on Fridays to make the most of all London has to offer.
In simple language he will cut fares on Fridays to win votes at considerable cost to TfL. Another five years in City Hall – job done.
The greatest scandal of this sort has been Councils ‘investing’ in commercial
Property. Particularly retail / shopping centres. They have the ability and facility to borrow at extraordinarily low cost, in part because they are deemed to be very high quality borrowing covenants, as they have endless ratepayers who are forced to pay whatever rate is demanded and Councils have special facilities.
Their business nous is worse than negligible. Typically in the last 10 years until maybe 3 years ago they were the go to target for agents selling useless shopping centres which no one else would dream of buying and the result had been nothing short of disastrous. Retail property has unsurprisingly performed worse than abysmally and ratepayers are now even worse off by a large margin than they would otherwise be, in numerous boroughs. Such shopping centres frequently now have substantial empty space and are in investment terms deeply under water. One other aspect is Councils ability to ‘grant’ themselves planning permission to try to extract themselves from such ineptitude. Southwark and Shrewsbury in particular spring to mind.
Thank you for shining a bright light on an area deliberately kept obscure.
Anyone who has ever been involved with residents’ associations of any size will sympathize ruefully with your thoughts Christopher. But in any club or association, it is usually left to a tiny group to do the heavy lifting while the majority accept those who do the work. And so it will ever be thus. On the matter of the local council loan, they are suggesting paying to local voters an amount of interest which will be income taxable on the local voters, but of course it will be funded out of council tax paid by those local voters and we know that that is paid out of local voters’ income which has already been taxed. There is something rather peverse going on there.