I was at the Town Hall this evening, and it was a strange experience. Normally there is a point in the first normal meeting of the Council year where they put aside a few minutes to make a small presentation to ex-councillors who have resigned, retired or lost their seat. This year is different because there were so many ex-councillors (seven who retired and four who got beaten) that they decided to hold a special extraordinary meeting just to make those presentations and to dish out some long-service awards.

I found the evening quite depressing for several reasons. It was a shame to see so many new Tory faces in the chamber obviously, and equally sad to see some people who had been good and conscientious councillors who got beaten or had called it a day. It also reminded me that, no matter how much I feel like I had a lucky escape back in June, I did fail and let down my party, and maybe the local population – who although they did not vote are not, I am sure, Tory supporters.

There were all the usual little in-jokes and banter, which I am no longer part of and I felt like an outsider in a place where last year I probably spent more time than I did at home. Its not that I wanted to be back in there, if anything I was reminded of how much I gave up for four years, but nobody likes to feel like an outsider, even if its something they don’t want to be on the inside of.

The long-service awards probably summed up what is so depressing. There were loads of them for people who had served more than 10 years on the Council, with a few over 20 years, or 30 years, and one with 50 years continuous service. It has to be said that Bert still has a spark even after 50 years in office. Some people do. Just think of politicians like Michael Foot or Tony Benn or Dennis Skinner who still kept their radical outlooks and energy when they could have been forgiven for deciding to call it a day and take it easy. The point is that having so many people in office who were there 20 years ago is not really a good sign for all the changes needed for the town to keep up. Innovation is not going to come from people who spend half their time complaining that its not as good as the old days. Its for that reason that I have great admiration for Doug and Mary Mayne who retired from the Council. Both of them still had the intellect, energy and ability to continue doing a good job but decided that enough was enough, and I can’t blame them for that. I was feeling a bit burnt out after four years and had not intended going beyond 8 years and can’t really understand what drives someone to continue for 12, 20 or 30 years.

Anyway… I now have a nice engraved crystal vase, but no mantel to put it on.

It was a bit of a rush though, because Jayne and I went to the school first to meet Chrystal’s teacher. That went on a lot longer than expected. I had hoped to have a look round the shops before the meeting, or pop in the pub for a beer first, but had to go straight to the Town Hall from the school. And to think that life was like that for me nearly every day before June! If the party try to persuade me to stand again next year, or the year after, I hope I look back at this blog to remind myself that it isn’t something to rush into lightly. Maybe I will compromise and stand in a safe Tory seat…

Today was also the deadline for getting the grant application for the community centre into the Town Hall, so at least I had a chance to deliver that by hand and make sure it got there. Talking of which, the centre had a few windows smashed last night. The surgery opposite had 9 windows smashed, and some offices over the road had all their windows smashed. I really can’t understand why someone feels the need to do that.