Same Old Councillors, Same Old Rubbish by Denis Podany

This is a reality check from the shop floor.

There’s a funny thing about many local councillors in places like Godalming and Ash. You only ever see them in two situations: on a leaflet smiling like they’ve just won the pools, or after something’s gone wrong saying, “Lessons will be learned.”

Funny how the lessons never seem to stick.

Two kinds of councillors

For years now we’ve had councillors who’ve mastered the art of doing very little, very politely.

They sit on committees, shuffle papers, nod gravely, and somehow always miss the moment when they’re actually needed. Roads crumble, planning goes haywire, services get thinner than a weak cup of tea – and the response is always the same: silence, followed by an excuse, followed by another leaflet. “Vote for me!”

They’re not bad people, mind you. Just spectacularly un-useful.

We’ve also had a different kind of local councillor. A politician, who wants power. He joins a political party, because it can propel him up into the power he craves.

He starts at borough level. He may also be on the parish or town council. Then he climbs the greasy pole to the county council. Then, if his party likes him enough, they will let him have him a shot at becoming MP.

He’s a party man. If his party’s policies go against the interests of the local people he is supposed to serve, he doesn’t care a damn. Policies are everything. People be damned.

A system that doesn’t work

Historic Britain was built by people who fixed things when they broke. If a bridge fell down, you didn’t commission a “community consultation strategy”. You rolled your sleeves up and rebuilt the bloody bridge. Today, our local councils would still be arguing about the wording on the sign explaining why the bridge fell down.

Godalming and Ash aren’t short of hard-working people. We’ve got builders, drivers, carers, shop staff, small business owners – people who live in the real world, where bins need emptying and roads need fixing, not “reimagining”. Yet for some reason, the council chamber has become a cosy club for the same names, the same faces, the same excuses.

When was the last time a councillor knocked on your door after being elected and said, “Right then, what’s not working?”

Not during an election. After.

When did they actually push back – properly – when decisions didn’t make sense for locals?

When did they say “no” instead of “that’s just how it is”?

Too often, they act like middle managers for a system that doesn’t work, instead of representatives for the people paying for it.

And here’s the real insult: they rely on apathy. They’re banking on people saying, “They’re all the same,” and staying at home on voting day. That’s how they survive. Not on results – on low turnout.

We need new leaders

That’s why new leadership matters. Not career politicians. Not people polishing their CVs. People who know what it’s like when the pay packet doesn’t stretch, when the council tax goes up but the service goes down, when common sense gets buried under paperwork.

Local councillors aren’t meant to be mini-lords of the manor. They’re meant to be neighbours with a backbone.

Call time on complacency

So, here’s the pitch, plain and simple: if you’re fed up with nothing changing, stop letting the same people run unopposed or unchallenged. If you moan down the pub, but still don’t vote, you’re handing them another free pass.

This isn’t about party colours. It’s about competence, courage, and calling time on complacency.

People in Godalming and Ash deserve local councillors who actually do the job – not just talk about doing it.

Election day isn’t a chore. It’s the one moment they can’t ignore you.

Use it.

And here’s where I’ll say something that might surprise a few people polishing their walking sticks and checking their share dividends.

This constituency didn’t get where it is by accident. Godalming and Ash was built on graft, thrift, and people who understood the value of a pound because they’d actually had to earn one. The older generations – many of whom did very well for themselves – didn’t do it by chasing fashionable nonsense or ticking boxes. They did it by backing solid, reliable people and expecting results.

So, consider this: lending your vote to a blue-collar councillor isn’t some radical experiment. It’s a return to type.

It’s putting someone in that chamber who knows what a late bill feels like, who notices when a service quietly disappears, who understands that money spent by the council is money taken from someone’s pocket – including yours. Someone who won’t be dazzled by jargon or bullied by “process”, because real life doesn’t run on process.

You don’t lose anything by letting working people represent you. In fact, you gain something that’s been missing for years: a councillor who treats your money with the same care they treat their own.

If you’ve done well in life – and many of you have – this is how you protect what you’ve built. Not by clinging to the same tired names, but by backing people who still believe public service means service, not status.

Complications for you…

And here’s the part that really sticks in the throat if you work for a living.

Every time something goes wrong in Godalming and Ash – a daft planning decision, another reduced speed limit, roads clogged solid again, services stretched thinner than a cheap sandwich – we get told it’s all terribly complicated.

Forms. Frameworks. Assessments. Consultations. Always consultations. Years of them. Shelf-loads of them. Enough paper to replant the Surrey Hills. But the consultations are usually just a rubber stamp. They don’t listen to the views of the people they are supposed to be serving.

…but not for them

Funny thing is, none of it ever seems too complicated for the people who benefit.

Bureaucrats keep their jobs. Councillors keep their seats. Developers get their way. Political agendas get carried on. And the bloke who gets up at five in the morning to graft? He gets told to “engage constructively” while paying for it all.

That should offend you. It offends me.

Because blue-collar people are not stupid. We fix machines, build houses, keep goods moving, keep the lights on. We solve problems all day long. Yet the moment we question local government, we’re treated like we wouldn’t understand, dear. Leave it to the professionals.

Well look at the results of their professionalism.

Housing without roads. Roads without repairs. Charges without services. Promises without delivery. And the same names popping up election after election like a bad smell that won’t clear.

Here’s the real scandal no one likes to say out loud: the system works perfectly – just not for us. It rewards people who talk well, not those who do well. It favours those who sit comfortably in meetings over those standing all day on concrete floors. And it relies on working people being too busy, too tired, or too fed up to challenge it.

That’s not democracy. That’s managed decline with a smile.

And when working people don’t stand, what happens? We get councillors who’ve never had to make a payroll, never worried about fuel prices, never felt that moment when the bill hits the mat and you already know it’s bad news. People who see council money as numbers on a spreadsheet – not hours of someone else’s life.

This is personal

So yes, this is personal.

Because every bad decision lands hardest on the people least able to dodge it. You can’t reroute around bad policy when you’re at the sharp end. You can’t expense it away. You just take the hit and carry on – which is exactly what they expect you to do.

That’s why this has to change.

Not with more polished candidates. Not with better slogans. But with people who actually understand consequences. People who’ll ask the awkward questions. People who don’t owe their position to favours, networks, or years of nodding along.

And this is where it all ties together.

If you’re an older resident who’s done well in life, backing a working-class councillor isn’t charity – it’s insurance. It’s putting someone in the room who will guard your town, your money, and your legacy like it actually matters.

If you’re a blue-collar worker reading this, here’s the uncomfortable truth: no one is coming to save us. If we don’t step forward, vote differently, and back our own, we’ll keep getting managed by people who’ve never lived our lives.

This is the moment to stop moaning and start moving.

Stand together. Vote together. And for once, put people in charge who know what happens when systems fail – because they’ve been the ones fixing it all along.

Image credit on main page: Surrey County Council