Dear Editor,
With local elections coming up, I wanted to let readers know that I’ll be standing down from Town Councillor for Byerley Ward, and to thank its people for affording me me the honour of being a voice for them. This has been my intention since the beginning of this second term as I believe fresh faces and fresh ideas are important in local democracy. I have tried my best throughout and, like all my colleagues on the Town Council, am proud that I’ve not received a single penny for it.
“Ah, what of it!” I anticipate readers will think, knowing of broad disdain for those, good or bad, who step up to serve their communities. Thoughts I recognise well, for I was once of similar mind. “Just look around,” I’d say, “why isn’t such and such looked after better, and all this litter, and dog mess, and who allowed the such and such to be closed?” This for most is the extent of our involvement.
I know so many of you care, and think, “how hard can it be? Where does all that money go and why are they asking for more?” A tiny handful go further, spinning up conspiracy theories because they want to believe in dark forces at work, but real life is not like the movies.
The truth of local councils is a mundane mix of funding formulae, local economic factors and understanding that just like at home, or in business, everything used costs more every year. Bills sent to Town and Parish Councils, for the goods they have to buy or the energy they use as they scrape to keep services and facilities there for you are no different. I could go on, but that’s not why I’m writing.
Instead I want to appeal to, and encourage, good caring people to represent their ward on the Town Council. Bring your ideas. Learn how civic finance and local decision making really work. Lean in and offer possible new answers. Take a seat at the debating table. Discover the truth from the inside. Give something of yourself to serve your town.
Contrary to what you may think, read, or be told, representing a political party is not so important today. Even those who do, in Shildon at least, are permitted to disagree and vote differently on every matter. Town Councils are about neighbourhoods not national ideology.
There is time for you to apply to stand for Town Council and be that change you want to see. Trying to change the world a thousand angry Facebook posts or comments at a time is about as effective as opening your back door and screaming into the wind. You feel better for a few seconds but that’s all you have achieved. Real work, real change, happens in the real world. It’s not comfortable, you’ll not be paid, rarely thanked, and not everyone will agree with you all the time, and crucially you must remember that you represent everyone in your ward, not just yourself.
Nonetheless, it’s still vitally important that good people fill those the seats in our Town Council chamber. Shildon needs the collective voice that the Town Council gives it. If it were not there, then please don’t be tricked into thinking that Durham, particularly since the mistake of the removal of Sedgefield District Council several years ago, would look after what the town still owns (and there is much in our town that does not belong to the town and over which its council has no powers) with the care and dedication that the Town Council’s officers, staff and groundworks team do. Perhaps the most important thing I have learned is that whatever you may think of Councillors, the Town Council’s employed staff are excellent, politically neutral and just want this town to thrive.
For my part, I’m proud to have tried hard to represent Byerley Ward as best I could, but it’s time for new representatives and new energy, and I’m keen to see who tries next and what they can achieve.
Those who know me best know I’m still committed to positive change here but in other ways.
So please, if you’re the kind who has talked to your neighbours and listened to how they, and you, feel about local issues, get up from the sofa and ‘stand’. Stand for yourself, your neighbours, your family, your street, your part of town. Be their voice and be that change. If not, who can you in all conscience point to when it doesn’t happen?
Yours sincerely,
Dave Reynolds, Town Councillor, Byerley Ward.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
