Learning how to manage the balance of power - Parish style

As a rookie at the grassroots level of local politics (and trust me, there is no lower level than a small parish council), it is fair to say that I have discovered a number of advantages.

Firstly, you can't kill anyone, no matter how badly you screw up. Yes, I might miss a subtle nuance on a planning application, or forget to submit my thoughts on a consultation on primary school provision, but I don't actually have any powers over such things. We could turn off our nine street lights, or let the grass on the village green grow until you could hide a rhinoceros in it, but even that is unlikely to be fatal - I've never seen a rhinoceros lurking anywhere in Creeting St Peter, let alone on the village green.

Second, you do get to learn a surprising amount about local government at higher levels. Our district and county councillors, both Conservative regrettably, report back on what they're doing (albeit badly and usually verbally), so you get a sense of who is responsible for what. Admittedly, Ros knows far more about this than they do, and I can learn more from her in five minutes than I could from my elected representatives, but it is educational, if only as a 'how not to' exercise.

There are disadvantages too. You have very few levers to pull, especially in a small village like mine. Bigger villages have village halls, subcontract tasks from higher tiers of local government, have budgets that allow them to do things. But when your precept is less than £4,000 per annum, you're not exactly fretting about anything significant.

However, there is a learning opportunity. We have a Parish Clerk, who is paid to provide us with a fixed amount of time per week. As an experienced officer at this level, she has a view as to how her work is done, and how her council operates. You will note the use of the phrase 'her council'. And that is the crux of my 'opportunity'.

You see, we disagree on something rather fundamental, i.e. who actually runs the council. It isn't as easy as it sounds.

Her job is, effectively, to ensure that we fulfil our legal responsibilities, something which has become more difficult as layer after layer of legislation has been draped over this junior tier of government. In a lot of parish councils, especially the smaller ones, the level of expertise amongst councillors is low - they're there because they care about their village, not because they are fascinated by the minutiae of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. As a result, being a Parish Clerk means leading councillors by the hand, a somewhat paternalist exercise, but an often necessary one.

A parish councillor like myself - political, rather better informed than the norm, and prone to thoughts of accountability and communication - presents an unusual problem. I see democracy as participatory, an informed process, and not necessarily well suited to a paternalist approach. I'm an 'out' Liberal Democrat, operating in a sphere where overt politics is rare, and often discouraged. You can see the potential for... how might I put it... gentle disagreement?

Tomorrow - an example of where paternalism and liberalism collide... freedom of expression and the Parish Council...