When I signed up to be a Town Councillor, I didn’t really know what to expect. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I’d get in; with seven of us standing for six seats in my ward, I was hopeful, but it’s hard to know how these things will go when you’ve never done anything like it before.
I know a lot of people in town, but not all of them live in my ward or are registered to vote. There wasn’t much clear information about what being a councillor actually involves. There were plenty of knowing looks and sharp intakes of breath about “the time commitment,” and yes, there are a lot of meetings.
Six months on (which has both flown by and felt like an eternity), my main takeaway is that the role, and how people define it, varies hugely from person to person. It depends on what you care about, what you focus on, and who you feel you’re serving.
If you search online, you’ll find that the time commitment for a Town Councillor ranges from 2 to 15+ hours a week. That sounds huge, and it is, but interestingly, it’s about the same as what’s expected from a Non-Executive Director (NED). There are a lot of unpaid NED roles in the arts and charity sectors, which tend to attract people because of the prestige or passion they carry. And yet, being a Town Councillor, where you’re shaping the place you live, doesn’t seem to have the same kudos.
Maybe that’s because there’s no formal selection process. As long as you’re over 18 and live or work in the area, you can stand. There’s no grilling by a board or skill-based recruitment; just an election (and sometimes not even that). Councils are generally looking for anyone, not necessarily someone with a specific skill set, which I guess could make it sound a bit desperate.
And people wonder: what do councillors actually do? What decisions do they make? Can you really make a difference, especially when you’re one of 14?
How Much Time It Takes
For me, it’s quite a lot. I opted to sit on all committees except Planning; so Communities, Asset Management, Finance, and Staffing, which keeps me busy. Meeting times vary, but under our new standing orders (soon to be ratified), no meeting should last more than two hours.
What’s struck me is how much time is spent discussing operational issues rather than strategic direction, and how often conversations circle back to what happened 5, 10, or 15 years ago, rather than setting a vision for the future.
I’ve also joined working groups; the Emergency Plan, Christmas Lights, and Climate Action Plan; where again, there’s sometimes a blur between what councillors should do strategically and what’s best left to staff or community partners.
The expectation to keep almost every Monday night free for council business can be tricky. That was the day set years ago, and there seems little appetite to revisit. There are also daytime meetings, which makes participation hard for anyone working full-time. I feel like things might be changing slightly. But an email on Monday announcing meetings on Thursday and Friday isn’t particularly flexible.
And then there’s the paperwork; agendas are published on Wednesdays, five days before meetings. The last one was 77 pages long, and was followed by two addendums (one the Friday before, another on the day!).
I also spend quite a lot of time maintaining my social media and this blog, which I actually find really helpful.
What Needs to Change
I genuinely believe most of these issues are solvable. At one meeting, a long-serving councillor commented that “younger people just don’t want to sit on Town Councils.” But rather than accepting that, shouldn’t we ask why?
If you’ve been in post for years, maybe there’s little incentive to open the door to competition. Town Councils have long been dominated by a particular demographic; often older, retired people who have the time to read 77-page agendas and attend daytime meetings. Staff, understandably, prefer to work standard hours. But if the structure doesn’t work for the community it’s meant to represent, then it needs to be rethought.
Who is actually responsible for making local democracy accessible, for encouraging people from all walks of life to stand? Theoretically, that’s what Town Councils are for. But if councillors and staff design systems that only work for people like them, we’re not really practising democracy at all.
For me
For me personally, the role has definitely been challenging. My background is in marketing, which has been useful for helping me communicate what the council does and engage more people in local issues.
Recently I’ve even learned some coding, creating a system to make meeting recordings more accessible; something I’d never done before.
The “politics of politics” isn’t my favourite part; it can feel bureaucratic, archaic, and painfully slow. But I do believe that if a group of like-minded, forward-thinking people came together with a shared vision for the town’s future, the impact could be huge.
Looking Ahead – Who’s Standing?
There are still 3.5 years until the next election, and I’d love to see more people stand in Redruth’s wards.
More broadly, I think hyper-local politics could help bridge some of the polarisation we’ve seen in recent years. It’s about taking ownership; of our towns, our communities, and our shared future.
If you’ve ever thought about standing, whether in Redruth or elsewhere, please do get in touch. I’ve only got six months of experience, but I’m happy to chat and share what I’ve learned so far.
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