What does a Councillor actually Do ? (7) Committee Work

One of the stereotypes grounded in reality about Councillors is that they sit on a lot of committees. Today I attended the Councils Plans West Panel ( Britain's biggest covering just shy of 4 parliamentary constituencies ?) I was quite slack missing the site visits and arriving late. However starting at 1030 and finishing at 1815 you can see why people need to dip in an out. I like Plans Panel because you actually get to take real decisions which frankly Councillors do less of than you might think. It was a bitty agenda and I only got to make two contributions. One beefing up the affordable housing provision in a flats complex ( If as a result there are just 3 or 4 extra socially rented units in existence then its as honest a days work as I'll ever do ). The second putting down a marker about microgeneration, green roofes and grey water recycling on an (otherwise excellent) first draft of a new school in West Leeds.

To some extent Plans Panels are a bit like Constitutional Monarchs, its not the powers that they have its the powers they stop other people having. I will go out on a limb and say I'd be horrified by the prospect of planning officers approving all the big stuff on there won. If you want to know why look at today's discussion over the woodside quarry in Horsforth. 70 minutes of panel members picking holes in and asking questions of an officer report. It wasn't pedantry I assure you.

After the meeting I went to the new Wetherspoons overlooking Millennium square with former colleague Coun Brian Jennings ( Con, Weetwood) . Brian was elected as a Lib Dem but you don't lasy Long in this business without realising there are decent people in all parties. I felt very old as we chewed the fat. Brian is contesting his seat in May and we are both likely to be suceeeded by much younger people and "political professionals".

When you end a working day drinking real ale, scorning youth and cursing the professionalisation of politics perhaps its just as well I'm retiring to the suburbs.