City and Suburban
By JOHN BETJEMAN
LOCAL councils are being granted more power, and I watch anxiously the results of elections this week. Party politics, which are the death of good local government, have already raised their hideous heads. I think I almost prefer corruption by money—a councillor in a small town after he had got a bit of business through by backstairs means remarked to a friend of mine on the same council, 'Well, there's no point in sitting on the council all these years without getting something out of it.' I expect there are many arguments in favour of giving more power locally. It must be discouraging for the many really disinterested local Councillors to feel frustrated by their county councils and Whitehall. Local council work is voluntary and councillors are often old retired people or busy.men who can ill afford the time. Because of this, power goes more and more to the paid officials, some of whom are excellent but others are not. During many years of battles against vandalism I have found more enlighten- ment from county councils and boroughs than from the small, sleepy places which get the worst deals.
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