Cllr Caroline Reeves reflects on the last 17 crazy months

Caroline Reeves had been a Lib Dem borough councillor in Guildford for 15 years when the local elections of
May 2019 catapulted the Lib Dems from small opposition party to largest party on a council with No Overall Control. In this blog she reflects on the last 17 crazy months…..

The borough elections in May 2019 brought the best result for the Liberal Democrats in Guildford for many years - 17 councillors. It didn't, however, give us what is called 'overall control' in political speak. We had a majority of one and the Conservatives who had been in control for so long were reduced to the third largest party (32 councillors to 8). All of this was very exciting and presented us as a group with a big challenge. Following the election the next step was to vote for a new leader of the council, and shortly after I became the Leader of Guildford Borough Council. This had never been part of my life plan, and the situation of being a party with no overall control in Guildford meant there were many questions around process and protocol. I had an Executive with no recent experience of holding portfolios, there was no handover to help, we walked into an Executive suite with empty files, everything had been shredded.

We worked carefully, finding our feet and after some time we created a joint executive, based on four of our party and four of the newly formed and elected Residents for Guildford and the Villages (R4GV). Everyone was on a steep learning curve. Only two of us had any experience as a councillor.

And then came Covid. And everything changed.

Lockdown meant a whole new way of working, with a number of councillors self-isolating for various reasons. All meetings were rearranged online and most council officers began working from home. The Millmead council offices were deserted. Then the real work started. All statutory duties continued uninterrupted; bins were emptied, streets were cleaned, housing officers worked with their tenants, the planners and the legal teams. Everyone was determined to ensure our residents were well served.

Then a whole range of new challenges appeared. There were food boxes to be filled and distributed, many more meals-on-wheels to be delivered, prescriptions to be collected and delivered, new licensing regulations to be implemented, new health and safety guidelines to be understood and implemented, new arrangements for funerals and burials, safe housing found for all the homeless, new ways of safe working created. Officers were redeployed across all parts of the council to create the teams needed. Long days and long nights had to be worked, often over weekends. Stress levels were high, exhaustion crept in, some of the conversations were distressing. But I didn't hear one word of complaint, our council officers from the Managing Director across all departments are the people who kept our residents and businesses as safe as they could, together with the amazing voluntary groups who materialised and supported their local communities. Yes, I was the leader, but these are the people who did the work; they were a privilege to lead.

I have heard it said locally that anyone who works in local government only does so because they aren't good enough to get a job in the private sector. Anyone who has worked with council officers in the circumstances of lockdown can definitely now challenge that statement and that includes me. I am privileged to have worked with council officers on the complicated and lengthy projects that are undertaken across all the directorates. People sometimes complain about the slowness of council business and yes it can be extraordinarily slow, but that's mostly because of the checks, balances and consultations needed when spending the public's money.

I have now handed over the leadership, as agreed with R4GV, and continue on our shared Executive as Deputy Leader. My time as Leader at Guildford BC will be one of the most interesting and diverse experiences of my life, and was very different to any other experience that a leader at Guildford Borough Council has had. There were no dinners, no ceremonies, no 'treats' - but it was beyond special. And for that I thank the team of remarkable officers. I am honoured to have worked alongside them all.

October 2020