My first week as a councillor (in numbers)

By Grace Fletcher-Hackwood / @msgracefh

Days as a councillor: 10.

Number of times I’ve got lost in the Town Hall: 4.

Pieces of paper I’ve been given: 1000+, and I’m not even sure if I’m exaggerating.

Times I’ve been patted on the head in the members’ room by a fellow councillor: 1, which was 1 too many.

Stupid questions I’ve had to ask my ward colleagues, other councillors and Members Services staff: lost count.

At the second of the two new-councillor induction sessions I’ve had in the last week, Cllr Suzanne Richards gave us a talk about her first year as a councillor. If you’re newly elected like me; thinking of becoming of a councillor in the future; or just curious about what Labour’s 800-odd new councillors are getting up to in the post-election world, I thought you might find it interesting to read some of Suzanne’s advice. Or at least, the bits of it that I remember. (We had about six presentations on Tuesday. I can’t promise that we took it all in.)

1. The paper: don’t keep it. This was actually a piece of advice from Sir Richard but every experienced councillor I know has backed it up: when you get given papers, read them, use them, then put them in the recycling. Don’t keep them, or after your first year as a councillor you won’t be able to see your living-room. (The pile of post I got on Friday alone was big enough to hide my smallest cat.)

2. Time: sort it out. Suzanne described the role of a councillor as ‘open-ended’: there’s always going to be more work you could be doing, and so it can easily take over your life. She recommends that as well as scheduling council meetings around the day job, new councillors also remember deliberately to schedule in some time for themselves, their family and friends. (I nodded sagely at this advice but I suspect that my mother – newly-elected councillor with a majority of 78, a full-time job and an eight-year-old – will read this and laugh her head off.)

I’d be really interested in seeing the demographics of all our new councillors. (In Manchester, for example, the proportion of our new intake of councillors who are women isn’t great; but we’ve done a little better in terms of LGBT and younger councillors.) In particular: how many are working? How many have young children? Anecdotally it seems that more and more Labour groups are getting away from the situation where they consist largely of retired people; but we’re not going to benefit from a true breadth of experience if their place is being taken by young professional politicians: and the time commitment required to be a councillor makes it difficult to fit around a full-time job, a family, and a normal life.

3. Perspective: keep some. It’s easy to get immediately caught up in group politics, or trying to make your mark, or remembering where Committee Room 11 is. (Seriously, what’s with the getting lost in the Town Hall thing? I’ve been going to meetings in there for three years but for the last week I’ve felt like I just started a new school. Maybe it’s because all the spiral staircases in Manchester Town Hall remind me of Hogwarts; maybe it’s just because of that satchel I’ve taken to carrying at all times.) But you – I – should keep in mind at all times that you don’t get the honour and privilege of being a Labour councillor because there’s anything special about you. You get it because, for some reason, your ward decided to elect you: and if you forget that, they’re going to think again.