Introduction
My Division of West End and Grange Park, contains the Borough Council Wards of West End North, West End South and Grange Park, where in total six Borough councillors serve their community. However, as a West End North Borough councillor also, I am one of those six elected members. Beneath all of this sits West End Parish Council and Hedge End Town Council. There are 14 West End Parish councillors of which I am one and 21 Hedge End Town Councillors of which I am one also.
I serve on four councils. They are Hampshire County Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, West End Parish Council and Hedge End Town Council. It may seem strange for me to say, but within my County Division, there are 27 councillors in total and I am four of them! Wouldn’t it be better to reduce the amount of bureaucracy, simplify the structure and reduce the cost to the tax payer?
Councillors
Councillors are to all intents and purposes, community volunteers. As previously explained, councillors serving different tiers of local government have different responsibilities and therefore the abilities required of them will be different. Yet all councillors have the same title, so how can the public differentiate between them? The answer of course is to determine at which tier that councillor represents and therefore it will become clear, just what is expected of a particular councillor. However, irrespective of the administrative tier of government, all councillors are a form of customer services agent between you the taxpayer and the service provider, the council.
If your community is not what you would expect in that there are numerous potholes, uneven pavements, insufficient litter/dog waste bins, no libraries, unkempt open spaces and many other public services not up to standard, it may be that your councillors are not working for you. The answer is in your hands, because you can choose whom to vote for at election time. That is if sufficient candidates put themselves forward.