Rookie councillor looks back on first three months in office

Hastings has gained several new councillors in the last two rounds of local elections, including three new Green Party representatives in May. One of them, Glenn Haffenden, presents his councillor diary, looking back at his first three months in office.

If you’d have asked me six months ago what would be taking up all my time, I’d have answered building my business, looking after my horse or doing up my house. If you had suggested it becoming a local councillor, I’d have laughed you out of court as going into politics just wasn’t part of my life plan. Yet that’s what is keeping me most busy this summer and if I am honest, I am loving every minute of it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always followed the news and have strong opinions on what’s going on in the world, and more locally, here in Hastings. But becoming a politician just seemed like something other people do, and light years away from my life as a businessman, husband, and horse-riding instructor. But a conversation with friends, and a chance encounter with local Green Party members, convinced me to throw my hat in the ring and put my money where my mouth was by standing in May’s local elections.

I chose Tressell Ward, as it reminded me of the place I grew up in and was where I thought I could make the most impact. Over the last six months, as I have walked the streets, knocked on doors and got to know the community well, the sense that this is one of several areas in Hastings that hasn’t properly benefited from changes elsewhere in the borough has grown, along with my determination to do something about it.

In the election campaign, I promised to be visible, active, and to do things differently, which clearly resonated with local people as I got elected on the biggest swing in town on election night, taking 56% of the vote in Tressell on a much improved turnout.

That was the easy bit.

I am now starting to deliver on my promise of being a hands-on, down-to-earth community councillor, and am acting on my promise to tackle long-standing local issues of dumping, anti-social behaviour and poor relationships with Optivo, the main social housing provider in my ward.

Rebuilding trust

We need to rebuild trust between the company and local residents, many of whom feel neglected and unlistened to, which is why I have organised a Farley Bank open day on 23 August in partnership with Optivo, when we will have lots of agencies attending to help with employment and other life skills, HBC will be attending to help with education about waste and Optivo will be attending to help with any housing issues, plus lots of other exciting surprises.

It won’t change things overnight, but it’ll start the process and get people talking again. Which has got to be good for everyone and can hopefully give rise to lots of new ideas and exciting initiatives over the coming months.

I’ve also become part of the Council’s Cabinet, the group of eight councillors who act as a kind of board and take on a leading strategic role across the whole borough. Since May, the Cabinet, like the Council, has run as a ‘co-operative alliance’ between Labour and the Greens, as no single party has enough seats to run the Council on its own. That’s a big change and a massive responsibility as we try to protect services in the context of a massive funding challenge at a time when energy and other bills are soaring out of control.

My responsibility is the Urban Environment, which takes in waste/recycling, street cleansing, licensing, environmental heath, enforcement and crematorium and cemetery. Crucially, it includes street cleansing, one of the most high-profile services we deliver in-house as a council.

Out with the teams

It is something we must get right, and one I need to understand inside out, which is why I spent a whole day out on the vans with a team last week. I am told this was the first time a Hastings councillor has done this and can assure you that I learnt loads about how things work in practice, on the ground. It gave me the chance to see things from a crew’s perspective, and to pick up their ideas on improving what we do.

The main point I brought back was that the team is currently understaffed and that is something I am keen to get addressed – I have never met a group of hardworking people as I did with this team, The work ethic of the team was inspiring, and I can’t explain in this article just how hard this team work. I really hope that in the next few months you will start to see a change from this service.

These are early days, and I am still getting to grips with the way the council works. A lot of the jargon, practices and procedures are new to me, and I am very much the newbie. But I absolutely love what I do and would encourage people who care about where they live to think about standing as councillors in the future.

We need to challenge the tired old timers who have forgotten why they first got involved and introduce more youth, energy, and diversity into our town halls, so that our elected politicians are more representative of our actual communities. And, with power, it is possible to make a difference.

The last three months have changed my life, for the better. And, believe me, I have only just begun.

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