That was the We Love Local Government year that was

And yet still anonymous

As this is the last posting Friday of the year we thought it would be a good opportunity not just to review the week in the world of local government but actually the whole year. And what better, and admittedly more self indulgent, way to do so than by choosing our favourite We Love Local Government posts from each month of 2011.

So, without further ado that was the we love local government year that was:

January

Picking our favourite post from January was tough but in the end we passed over a guest post comparing local government to a (pirate?) ship and a slightly controversial post looking at the power of children’s services departments to get what they want simply by uttering the words: ‘you can’t do that; if you do a child might die’ and picked our local government ‘Dear John’ letters featuring such classics as:

Dear resident,
At least make the effort to learn my name
Sincerely, councillor

Dear councillor,
The three years out of four when there aren’t elections still count on the calendar
Sincerely, resident

Dear 2006,
Where’s all our money gone?!
Sincerely, 2011

Dear job security,
It was nice knowing you.
Sincerely, a Public Sector Worker

Dear Local Government,
F**k you!!!
Sincerely, Eric Pickles

Dear Bankers,
Be warned, I’ll be back!
Sincerely, schadenfreude

February

In February we discussed who we’d like to see working in Local Government (Stephen Fry as Head of Comms anyone?) and pondered why the DCLG had become the Department for Criticising Local Government but our favourite post was when we took a stab at helping Eric Pickles with his bonfire of local government duties. Some of our favourites were:

DCLG_076 Have regard to Local Area Agreement  targets

Only regard, we don’t have to actually follow them?!? Who writes law like that?

DCLG_083 Promote democracy (not yet commenced).

It’s the fact that it is not yet commenced.  So at the moment we don’t need to do anything about what our whole system is about – democracy? Really? And if we’ve survived this long without the regulation do we really need it?

BIS_034 Enforcement of Nightwear (Safety) Regulations

Do we have to ensure everyone is wearing appropriate pyjamas?

March

In March we had a look at the increasing complexity of the password setting regime in local authorities and pondered whether a battle between civil servants and local government workers was in anyone’s interest, but our favourite post by far was when we produced our guidelines on how to stifle creativity in local government including such gems as:

2. Create a steering group

No project worth its salt can be delivered without the aid of a steering group, so insist that one is brought together and engaged with before anything is proposed formally.  There will need to be people there from at least six different services, so make sure they get them along even if they don’t want to come.  The more people who are involved, the more changes will be suggested for scope and aims, so the less creative it will end up.

April

In April we looked at the sure sign that you had ‘made it’ in local government and were very grateful to be mentioned as an influential voice in local government by the LGC. However, our favourite post by far was a guest post from someone describing themselves as having a non-job:

My name is xxxxxx and I have a non-job.

There, I’ve said it. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

I have never worked directly with a member of the public. I have not cleaned streets, looked after disabled adults, planted flowers, been a lollipop lady, cleaned a sewer or even planned a new traffic scheme. Looking back on my career I cannot point to one example where my work ‘directly’ benefitted a member of the public enough that they would be able to say; ‘that xxxxxx, she did  a really good job for me today’.

…. The public might not see me or care whether I exist or not but my colleagues seem to value my work. I’m also fairly certain that if my job did not exist then someone would have to invent it or front line staff would be doing it in their ‘spare’ time.

May

In May we joined in a larger debate about the future direction of young people in local government, looking in detail at the National Graduate Development Programme and asking if there could ever be such a thing as a council officer prodigy. Taking a step back we also had a look at the different personality types that end up working in the council including:

The Man from Del Monte

This may date me, but as all of a certain age know; the man from Del Monte, he says Yes.  And so does this person, agreeing to take on just about every single project or task asked of them, and many of those given to their colleagues as well.

The Jobsworth

The bane of Joe Public, the Jobsworth is that individual who will not do anything that isn’t covered by policy or procedure, even if their actions will exacerbate a situation.

And

The Pitbull

Usually found in more senior roles, The Pitbull has a reputation far surpassing most others.  Willing to fight almost any fight, they appear to take pleasure in actively opposing others and revel in conflict situations.  They tend to not beat around the bush, instead going straight for the throat and ripping the life out of whatever project or minion who has had the misfortune of getting in their way.

Plus many, many more besides.

June

In June we discussed whether councillors should have iPads (they should) () and whether we should be proud of our failures (we should) and published our favourite ever guest post entitled simply, ‘you want me to do what?!’:

The fun really began when I showed her the final draft the day before the presentation, and was told ‘this is great, but what I want is for the notes to be hand-written’.

Let’s let that sink in, shall we?

The notes, which I’ve already typed up and are much neater than any hand-writing could be, are to be hand-written. I point out that I have the handwriting of a 4 year-old with learning disabilities. I ponder with her the dangers of having one copy – what if it gets lost or damaged and then has to be rewritten again? To no avail. They are to be hand-written. I mean, what other work could I possibly have to do that would take precedence over writing these notes out?

‘Oh, get someone else to do it’, comes her advice. So I do ask one of the team administrators to do it (more of an apology than a request), and they have the same reaction as any sane person would. It’s embarrassing. It’s a palpable waste of time.

July

In July, we sent a break up letter to our job and asked staff to join us in a little bit of council Bingo, but the stand out post was one discussing the complex and often misunderstood issue of mental health in the workplace:

For those of us in local government these are incredibly stressful and difficult times.  Even the most stoic and mentally healthy person can find themselves wobbling at the moment; tempers fraying, long silences growing, work and relationships suffering as the constant and increasing pressures and responsibilities are placed upon them.

For those of us who were fighting mental health problems even during the ‘good old days’ of local government, things can be a fair bit harder.

Having gone through my own dark times, the past few months have been rough to say the least.  I’ve hidden my own mental health issues from all, even avoiding naming them to my partner for fear that they would treat me differently.  I know that they know, it’s been a huge elephant in the room so many times, but giving it a name might give it power so we’ve skirted around it as only couples can do.  I knew that I shouldn’t be depressed and couldn’t work out why I was – it was as much a part of me as my eyesight or appreciation for Glee (two unrelated facts, I assure you).

August

In August there were riots and we took the view that the response from local authorities up and down the country showed the real value of councils and, despite a lot of media attention, the limitations of the Big Society in this context. Meanwhile we pondered the collapse of the councils corporate centre and got ourselves involved (inadvertently) in a massive row with library campaigners in Gloucestershire. Our post reviewing the dispute and trying to get to the bottom of the real issue in GCC (as opposed to our supposed plan to get personal promotions by shutting libraries?!?) is our pick of the month:

Getting to the bottom of what is actually going on is difficult so being the unashamed local government officers that we are I decided to delve into the committee report that was agreed at the council.

The report does not make happy reading for anyone who cares about local government. Gloucestershire Country Council was being asked to make the following savings:

The total of these adjustments, which have been incorporated into the MTFS, produces a budget for 2011/12 of £396.156m.  Council tax remains at £1090.50 for a band D property with no increase for 2011/12.  Over the four year period the savings required to balance the budget are £114m compared with £108m at the time of the draft budget.  This increase is due to the lower than expected settlement.  Further details are set out in the attached MTFS.

That’s a huge reduction in spending; even for a large county council. The council is lopping off over a quarter of its budget.

The council ran a (much criticised) consultation asking people which services they should protect and the answers were the following:

Care of older people
Care for vulnerable adults
Child protection and care for vulnerable children
Fire & Rescue
Supporting thousands of voluntary carers

Anyone who works in Local Government knows that the majority of the council budget is taken up with five services: the top three above along with Highways and waste. In County councils only the top three are within scope so my bet is that they massively dominate all spending. Thus, any protection of those five services (which make up maybe 2/3rds to 3/4s of any unitary council’s budget), or even three of them, means disproportionate cuts to everything else. It is this which probably led to the eye watering 43% (yes, you read that correctly; 43%!) cut in the libraries budget.

Once they had protected all those other services it probably became necessary to cut deep elsewhere (1 in 6 staff were to be made redundant as well!) and by the looks of it that included libraries.

September

Never afraid to shy away from issues in September we asked why people thought having a degree was a necessary skill for many local government jobs, discussed a provision in the localism bill that provided for non-binding referenda (the point of which was and is unclear and was thus later removed) and tried our best to pick our way through the dispute at Dale Farm:

This is the beginning of the end to a process which began a decade ago, when the Council began trying to move a then-smaller group of travellers on from the site but were unsuccessful.  It is difficult to pick some of the facts from the story without coming across as biased towards one viewpoint or another, and not being immersed in the situation we don’t want to say whether one is in fact right or wrong, but it’s worth for a second reflecting on the challenges the Council faces here.

In the first place, they are being pressurised by local people to move this group on.  According to their consultation findings, they claim an overwhelming majority of local people want them to take the action that they are now trying to push through, with few arguing for the opposite.  If they stood aside and allowed the traveller community to stay on their site then they would be going against the wishes of the pre-existing local community.  This of course assumes that good practice principles were followed when undertaking this consultation, but we have to believe that if they hadn’t been then they would have not got as far as they have to date.

They also have many years of planning law and regulations to consider.  Over the years, countless buildings and developments will have been proposed to the planning department for a huge variety of structures and potential communities.  Some will have been successful, others will have fallen foul and not been allowed.  By the looks of things, the travellers have developed the site they are on without going through these processes and/or abiding by the findings of the planning department, carrying on with their own plans regardless.

It has also taken years to get to this stage.  The Council will not have been sitting idly by during this time waiting for it all to come to a head before moving in, which makes this last minute reprieve for the travellers a little puzzling.  They will have surely been trying to abide by the law and contacting the community to tell them their concerns and the issues which were arising, and looking for an easier, quicker, cheaper solution.  To think that years of acrimony and mistrust will be swept aside within a week and an amicable solution reached seems a little too far in the realms of fantasy for me.

October

In October we took aim at the Government over their one year council tax freeze money that would have simply made the deficit bigger for councils in one year’s time and urged councils to start talking about snow (which has so far turned out to have been really sensible… Oh, wait…). However, we also spent part of the month celebrating out 100,000^th hit on the blog and published a special post asking some of our readers why they love local government. It was an uplifting piece concluded by our own thoughts:

And what about us?

We Love Local Government because:

Within the catch all term ‘local government’ is a diverse, complicated, at times bizarre and yet dedicated, brilliant and innovative organism. At its best local government can make a lasting difference to the lives of the residents it serves and even at its worst you can guarantee that the motives will be good and that there’ll be something interesting to talk about. It’s a place where things done perfectly go unnoticed, whilst the slightest hiccup makes news columns big and small, which attracts some of the greatest thinkers and doers working today along with more than its fair share of those whose only purpose in life is to serve as a bad example to others.

Like any relationships, our love of local government has its ups and downs, its highs and lows, its moments of pure inspiration, its moments when the acronym WTF?! is the only way to describe things.  It may drive us mad at times, but if nothing else it will always drive us someplace interesting.

Local government is all this and so much more.

November

In November we gave advice for newbies entering local government for the first time and made a plea for better presentations and proposals from ICT companies as we argued that getting simple ICT shouldn’t be complicated. However, the story that dominated all others was the local government strike. Whilst members of the blog team disagreed about whether or not to go on strike, this advocacy of the strike action represents the thoughts of one of us on the picket line and hopefully many of the others who joined them that day:

Finally, I’m striking because Local Government and the Public Sector is being forcefully changed.

From cuts to new acts, I see a Local Government changing into something I don’t recognise.  Though the issue is pensions, for me this strike is about a lot more.  It is about the future of the Public Sector.

That is why I’m striking.

December

This month is still with us but we enjoyed taking a cheeky look at Freedom of Information requests and particularly enjoyed this guest post about a vote on the thorny issue of council prayers. However, our top post of the month was entitled ‘does motive matter’ and asks the important question of whether we need to have a public sector ethos to excel at our jobs (probably not). As the author says:

Many of the projects I eulogise about, bring people together for and whip up enthusiasm around are actually things that I wouldn’t do if I had a choice. Some admittedly do cross over into areas where I find genuine personal interest, but the majority I do because that is what is expected of the role. I deliver them and deliver them well, but lack the fire of conviction that my public reputation appears to support.

My question is simple: does this matter?

Does it matter that I deliver the required projects to the best of my ability even if deep down I don’t really have any interest in them or really care? Does it matter that I look on with envy at those who seem to have found their calling and their place in the grand scheme of things? Isn’t the important thing that these projects achieve or surpass their targets, that I am able to encourage the others that I bring along the way to believe even where I do not?

So, that was the local government year that was. Apologies for the really long post but we don’t plan to write again until the New Year so at least it will keep you going until 2012.

In the meantime, we would like to thank you all for reading and contributing to this blog and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2012.

Welovelocalgovernment is a blog written by UK local government officers. If you have a piece you’d like to submit or any comments you’d like to make please drop us a line at: welovelocalgovernment@gmail.com

A brucie bonus Christmas carol

From our inbox a cheeky bonus Christmas carol:

Hark the herald Pickles sings
“Here’s some cash for weekly bins.
It’s a real bee in my bonnet
Look sharp now, and get right on it.
Now, now you lot, let’s be mates,
I’ll let you keep business rates.
Now I see a slight relax,
I’ll cut bens for Council Tax.”
Hark the herald Pickles sings,
who knows what 2012 will bring.

Local Government Christmas Carols

Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy

In what has become a tradition (well, a tradition of one year and a bit) today is the release of our much anticipated Local Government Christmas Carols.

Please do enjoy them and if you can think of any better ones why not write them below, tweet us at @welovelocalgov (#localgovcarols) or drop us an e-mail at: welovelocalgovernment@gmail.com

Twelve Days of Christmas

On the Twelfth day of Christmas Local Government gave to me:

Twelve waste operatives collecting
Eleven social workers helping
Ten children officers protecting
Nine housing officers housing
Eight carers caring
Seven librarians inspiring
Six adult educators teaching
Five non jobs
Four planners planning
Three road engineers rebuilding
Two managers managing
And a Chief Executive for this year at least

Away in a Manger

Away with the fairies, no cash for our work,
The DCLG say no fight they will shirk.
The stars in loc’l gov’nment will all do their best,
To deliver what’s needed and still do the rest.

The papers are screaming ‘bout all that we waste,
But those who know better simply see their haste.
I love local government and the effort they make,
And the chance to say thank you is one that I’ll take.

O come all ye faithful

O come, all ye officers,
Pension-less and stress-ed.
O come ye, O come ye to protest march.
Come and picket them,
Fighting for our pittances;
O you can stick your gold plate,
O you can shove your gold plate,
O ram that golden plated comment, right up your <censor>

We three kings

We three kings of localgov are
Bearing cuts, aspersions we cast.
Waste and slander, we demand more
Buck up your act real fast.

O DCLG, defend with might,
The taxpayer’s and their bin collection rights,
Forget to defend and simply attack,
Your charges’ work; they can’t be right.

Good King Wencelas

Mr Dilnot last looked out
On our social care system
When the cuts lay round and ‘bout
And the needs were rising

Brightly was that re-port praised
For long term thought and planning
Then the Gov-ment came on board
And progress was withdrawn

Silent Night

Scrutiny Night, Holy Night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Scrutiny Chair and Officer
Democracy starts to be enacted
Scrutinise until you find the fault
Scrutinise until you find the fault

We three kings

We three Officers of undistinguished ethnicity,
Bearing work for contracts
Bins and swimming pools, social care and benefits
We no longer do but contract out to others to complete

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride on a one horse open sleigh

FoI Request: ‘Can the council tell me how many licenses have been granted for one horse open sleighs, what the processing time was for each license and what quota of fun was had by each licensee?’

Once in Royal Davids City

Once in royal Davids city,
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby,
In a manger for His bed:

Mary then left that location and George Clark from Channel 4 added it to his empty homes database

We wish you a merry Christmas

We wish you a Winterval,
We wish you a Winterval,
We wish you a Winterval,
And a happy financial year!

Welovelocalgovernment is a blog written by UK local government officers. If you have a piece you’d like to submit or any comments you’d like to make please drop us a line at: welovelocalgovernment@gmail.com

A spot of Christmas goodwill – Let’s help get Clarkson off the hook

We can support him and laugh at him too right?

Earlier this week I confidently predicted that a rather excellent post from one of our readers would be the last guest post of the year. However, as with so many things we write on this blog, that prediction got proved wrong almost immediately as this excellent little post dropped onto the mat of WLLG towers (well, it arrived in our e-inbox). We like the writing and love the debate it should start so without further ado let us all stand up and support Jeremy Clarkson!

Oh, and this is definitely the last guest post of 2011. If you have something you’d like us to put up in 2012 please do drop us a line at welovelocalgovernment@gmail.com. We love guest posts and we’re sure our readers do too so if you have something to say (on any local government topic) please drop us a line and join in the debate.

Now, back to Jeremy Clarkson:

This week we learned that Ofcom is looking into Jeremy Clarkson’s prime-time tirade against striking public sector workers.

As a public sector worker I have to say that my first reaction to this piece of news was not what most people might think.

The media regulator’s investigation into the Top Gear presenter’s call for strikers to be:

taken outside and executed in front of their families

did not send me racing into schadenfreude overdrive.

Although many of my colleagues are likely to have been very pleased with Ofcom’s latest actions, for me it did the opposite – putting the brakes on my already thinning year-end optimism.

Localgov Secret Santa Gifts

What will Santa bring for good local government types?

With the festive season very much upon us, staff up and down the country are busy trying to work out how to get a gift for a fiver for their secret santa choice despite only having met them once at a team away day four months earlier. If you’re having problems you should either visit the mindblowingly brilliant Five Squids website for some inspiration, or alternatively read our list and match your chosen person with the perfect gift.

If you’ve got any other suggestions you can join in the fun by leaving a comment below or by tweeting us (@welovelocalgov) using #localgovgifts

Chief Exec
In this time of constant attack from angry residents, media local and national, councillors from just about all parties and even from those who are supposed to be there for local government it’s important to know that your friendly Chief Exec needn’t take all of the flak themself. Why not provide them with a fully disposable sacrificial lamb?

Simply select an officer of little actual power and arrange for all blame to fall firmly at their door. Should they happen to earn more than the chief exec they will also be able to deflect those pesky paid-more-than-the-PM arguments.

Scrutiny manager
Scrutiny needn’t be a chore – it can be fun too! Give your scrutiny manager the chance to pit their wits against colleagues with a personalised version of the classic Cluedo board game.

They will be able to investigate the mystery of who killed all hope and trust in the public sector: Was it Mr Pickles in the Office with a hatchet?

Public Sector Pain

Public Sector perception or Daily Mail parody?

A last guest post before Christmas and this one sums up how many public sector workers are feeling at the moment.

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves:

For the last few months I, like many others, have had to put up with abuse from the public and press about cuts to council services. I work in local government, in the corporate centre, and it’s my job to keep people informed.

The whole world it seems has an issue with people in the public sector. The government think we could do things better, with a lot less money. The private sector thinks we’re overpaid, over-resourced and over-pensioned. And we all know what the Daily Mail thinks.

Most of the abuse isn’t personal and I don’t take it personally. But people say it without giving any thought to my situation, any hint of empathy or interest in whether or not I (or thousands of others) might be directly affected.

Take the cuts debate. Colleagues recently received a tirade of personal abuse for attending an awards ceremony. How can councils make cuts to services and then send officers off to fancy awards dinners? The answer is that they don’t.

1. It wasn’t fancy, it was down the road. 2. The council didn’t (and wouldn’t) pay, so they paid for themselves.

So we got to do a difficult job, working very long hours, to deliver some tough service changes at the behest of the democratically elected representatives we serve. Hours for which we don’t get paid or even get the time back (this is the public sector after all).

That was the localgov week that was

New week; same picture!

There’s only one week until Christmas, one week until Christmas! At WLLG towers we have brought out some tinsel, a few mince pies and a little mulled wine; however, that hasn’t stopped us from casting an amused eye over the world of local government this past week. Here are our picks:

Are you interested in the future of Local Government? Do you have 2 sides of good ideas that you could contribute to a new commission looking at local government? If so you might be interested in checking out the Civic Enterprise UK Commission on the Future of Local Government.  As the site explains:

In order to produce practical recommendations that create a blueprint for local government we need to build a broad evidence base.  We hope to bring the concept of Civic Enterprise to life through real world examples and cases where the challenges of working in new ways have been overcome.  This means that we need to hear from any individual, business, public sector agency, third sector organisation, social enterprise or interested party that can share their experience with us.

If that’s not a call to action then I don’t know what is. Do get involved.

On a similar theme, we do like to plug good things in local government and the LGIU Councillor Awards 2012 are one such good thing. The nominations are now open in the following categories:

• Age UK Pride of Place Award
• Bruce-Lockhart Member Scholarship
• CCLA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Financial Performance
• Community Champion of the Year
• Judges Special Award for Contribution to Local Government
• Leader of the Year
• Online Councillor of the Year
• Partnership Achievement of the Year
• Scrutineer of the Year
• Sustainability Champion of the Year
• Young Councillor of the Year

We’re off to nominate someone now (by clicking here) and we’d encourage you to do so as well. Go on, you know you want to!

I just stepped in something squidgy

Enough to ruin a girl's day (or indeed to mount an unhealthy obsession)

We love a good guest post and today’s is both amusing and thoughtful at the same time. We love it and we hope you do too. Now, watch your step!

Walking to work a few weeks ago; slight skip in my step, beautiful radiant sunshine and frost on my breath, over priced coffee in my hand, thinking about the “to do” list that never ends and my lunch date with a friend from work… I skip along the well trodden roads near my home in London , hair bouncing and smiles exchanged from passers-by. Everything was going so well…

Now I work in consultation and engagement for Local Authorities. I actively try to support community empowerment and provide the bridge between the community and over worded reports and increasing amounts of jargon that only the author understands (or sometimes doesn’t).

I have facilitated community meetings where Joe and Joanne Blogs complain about what in the Council’s eyes are minor – non priority things.

For example, some things I have sat and listened to after 9pm on a week day: neighbours who put their rubbish out a day early or who see a group of young people (aka two young people), and think the riots are going to start again or the Police taking a leak in the side of the road. Diligently minuting them, smiling and promising to speak to the relevant personnel. Quietly rolling my eyes and thinking – OMG!

Back to my morning, hair bouncing and smiling… Aha! Commiseration and understanding hits me as my shoe sinks into large, smelly, squidgy dog poo. I live near a park, and of course, there are some lovely dogs running through it, escaping their two bedroom flats on their daily walks, wind rushing between their ears, tongue hanging out, saliva pouring from their mouth… there are some others that enjoy a good waddle and sniff in people’s crotches and a quiet grunt at the fish and chips packet holder.

The owners that I run past in the morning are diligent with their scented poo bags and quietly do the deed, holding their breath and praying that none slips over the top of the bag while they do it up and put it into the poo bin. The owners, (that must only come out at night like vampires, ghosts and ghoulies) to let their dogs sh*t on the sides of the roads and public pavements are the ones that I am being petty over. To be fair, there is a significant amount of dog poo all over the pavements where I live; making what is a great and vibrant community- a bit of a dirty one at times.

Furious after my skipping and enjoying the sun on my face, I look down and my shoe heal is covered – all two inches of it – covered in dog fouling vomit smelling mess.

Does motive matter?

Is it about motive or outcomes?

Regular readers will know we appreciate guest posts, and recently have been lucky enough to have a number of these sent into us. If you’ve got something you would like to send in you can always find us at welovelocalgovernment@gmail.com. Todays guest post poses a very interesting question around motives and ethics, and we’re looking forward to hearing what you think about it. Of course, that means you’re going to have to read it first…

I am a fraud.

To be clear about this, I’m not saying I commit fraud, merely that I am one. I found myself considering this after several meetings with officers and councillors recently regarding my area of work. I spoke with them all at length over the course of several meetings, looking at a range of projects and trying to get their buy-in to my plans as well as to excite them about the potential outcomes. Through my one-to-one meetings with my manager and informal feedback from others I heard that I was developing a very positive reputation, with people particularly appreciating my commitment and enthusiasm.

Of course, I am pleased with this, except for the simple fact that what I am being praised for isn’t real. Well, not entirely anyway. You see, I actually don’t really care about these projects. My enthusiasm and commitment is required to get the tasks I have completed and deliver successful outcomes. The perceived passion is actually a tactic to achieve my end goals. Machiavelli would no doubt approve.

Praying for democracy

Is Eric Praying?

Sometimes an e-mail pops into our inbox with a guest post which would never have crossed our minds. Today is just that day and we’d like to thank our guest poster for it. It’s all about prayers and council meetings but you’ll know that once you’ve read it.

A few years ago I was the clerk to the Full Council meeting of a now defunct rural District Council. The meetings used to be fairly stage managed even the righteous indignation of the opposition was carefully worded at times.

As such, many of back benchers were left without lines and were relegated to the role of ‘spear carriers’ in the play.

It wasn’t often the Chamber witnessed a genuine debate where all members had a chance to argue their points and really feel like they were able to determine the issue at hand. Seasoned watchers of local government debates may recognise this picture.

I was reminded recently, by the reports of the Atheists taking Bideford Council to court over the imposition of prayers at the beginning of Full Council meetings, that sometimes a Council Chamber can be electrified by good debate that involves all Councillors.

This has been a long standing tradition for many Councils but one that I, as an officer and an atheist, had always felt uncomfortable with. I won’t go into the pros and cons of prayers, but I will weigh in below the line if it kicks off later, but I will recall the best debate I ever heard in a Chamber.