RICHMONDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCILLOR AND RICHMOND TOWN COUNCILLOR                 LORRAINE HODGSON

I have really enjoyed my first 9 months of being a councillor.  Although I attended lots of meetings doing the job is completely different to what I expected and I am even more convinced that Party Politics should not play a role at a local level.

I have visited a number of the council departments to better understand how they operate and what difficulties they face.  I have spent a day on the recycling lorry, it was a long day and I was thoroughly worn out. I have concerns over the new working day for the workers that will start this week, meaning they do all the collections over 4 days but have to work much longer days. I will go out again with them later this year to see first-hand how the impact of this has affected them.

I have visited the housing department which was very interesting and gave me an insight into how that works.  I have spent a morning within the benefits department. I also went to visit the homeless unit in Colburn.  I went for the morning to the maintenance unit and while I was there visited a council house getting refurbished. This was a very valuable experience as I learnt so much regarding council properties.