Winning an Election is Hard, Continuing to Win for Local Residents is Even Harder

This is my first blog. I love new technology and I love talking to people, so this is fantastic.

I am James Alexander and I am the youngest Councillor on City of York Council. I am Councillor for Holgate ward.

I am extremely honoured to be elected and I have to say extremely relieved. I along with party members and fellow candidates (now also Councillors) knocked on every door in Holgate in the run up to the local elections. This is approximately 5,000 houses, housing over 9,000 people. Anyone who was out received a card to say that we called and gave our contact details. On top of this we were working hard, dealing with casework and making sure that we could be seen as a favourable alternative to the incumbent Liberal Democrat Councillors. I dropped my hours at work to part-time to fight this election seriously.

Winning took it out of me. It is not everyday that someone like me, with my background gets to amount to anything, let alone represent a lot of good, hard working people. It is an honour. But I have to say that continuing to win on behalf of the residents is even harder.

When you become a Councillor, you are immersed in endless meetings about many things you had not previously considered. Instead of travelling at high speed on a smooth road, dealing with your niche subjects and pet projects, you are dodging obstacles and rough terrain through a slow and frustrating local Government.

However, I do think that if more ordinary people like me stood for elections we would have better representatives and faster systems for putting local residents first.

I intend to keep this blog as up to date as I possibly can, conveying what it is like to be a new Councillor. I will try to be as non-partisan as possible and I hope it encourages more ordinary people to stand for elected office.

I am working hard for ordinary people like us and I won’t let you down.