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As the youngest member of the District Council, James brings a completely different focus to our considerations. With a background of communications, it’s not very surprising that his interaction with constituents has a very modern flavour to it and you’ll see that come out quite clearly in the discussion we had. Although there is a strong political dimension within this discussion, you may note that it is not so set within him as it might have been some years ago. Life on the Council has clearly had a tempering effect. It will be worth watching him in the years to come. We caught up with him at the Saturday morning ‘surgery’ the Rochford Ward Councillors held in the Parish Rooms.

Rochford Life:  James, you are quite clearly, the youngest District Councillor.
James:  Yes, I was elected when I was twenty four and I’m now twenty nine.

RL:  What was it that got you into local government?
James:  Well, I was quite active in the Conservative Party youth wing in my younger days and I gradually worked my way from being Branch Chairman of the Conservative Future to area Chairman of Essex Conservative Future and while I was doing that I got the chance to meet various people including the Chairman of the then Rochford and Southend East Conservatives who thought it might be good to find me a seat somewhere. I had the opportunity to stand for election while I was at University (Multi-Media Technology) in my second year but I had to pull out because I knew that I couldn’t do everything. I couldn’t finish the degree as well as stand for election. Then a couple of years went by when I got involved with the Conservative Party youth wing and then they found me a seat in Rochford and I stood against Maureen Vince for the District Council. I had a really good election agent and really good team behind me and I won.    

RL:  What are your particular interests in the Council?
James:  I am Vice Chairman of the Audit Committee – I have been on that Committee since I was first elected and also the Licensing Committee. Now the funny thing is that I very rarely drink but it’s interesting being on the Licensing Committee. I think, more widely being available to constituents,  being relatively young I’ve taken advantage of social media – Facebook and Twitter. You obviously have to be careful what you say but anyone can add me on Twitter or Facebook and see that I’m a normal person. Most people rarely think of councillors as young people.    

RL:  What sort of things have you learnt along the way?
James:  I’ve done a lot of growing up over the last five years or so. You learn about personal development and you learn that everything is not as clear cut as you might have thought. You might want to change the word but you can’t because there are so many rules. At first things upset me because there were things I wanted to change but couldn’t. But then you overcome that and think, well maybe there is a different side of the story after all. It’s been a massive learning curve. The original idea was that if I hadn’t won back into 2006, I would have gone back to University to do a Masters, maybe in politics, but of course that didn’t happen because I won my election.  

RL:  Do you have a social life?
James:  Oh yes, I go clubbing and when the individuals in these clubs know that you’re a councillor, they want to talk to you about politics, so I’ve had a lot of young people coming up to me wanting to talk about politics.   I think all political parties need younger people to stand for election no matter what political persuasion they are, and we need young people on the Council. I have a full-time day job in IT in Essex, so it’s a case of juggling my work life and the Council and doing everything else in between, but even when I’m on holiday, thanks to modern technology, I can pick up my e-mails on my Blackberry and deal with things thousands of miles away.
I find that more people want to contact me through e-mail, Twitter and Facebook rather than send me a letter or phoning me up. Whereas people may not want to come out on a Saturday morning they are happy to sit at home and communicate on the Internet. Of course, at the same time, you can’t forget those who don’t have mobile phones with Internet access, or the elderly who may not have computers at all. My Blackberry did go down with everyone else’s this last week.  I was without my e-mails, Twitter or Facebook for three or four days and so I had to physically go to a computer to get my e-mails and log in, and I’ve not done that for years. That’s how we depend on modern technology now.   

RL:  So are we going to find you standing to be an MP one of these days?
James:  You never know what is going to happen in politics. I think first and foremost there is going to be a reorganisation of local government, probably in the next ten years, and who knows what will happen. Maybe I’ll be an MP, maybe I’ll be an MEP, maybe when I come up for re-election when I’m thirty two, I may  decide to emigrate. Anything can happen; I’m still young enough to choose from a wide spectrum of things. I’ve been involved in politics ever since I was about eighteen. I was brought up in a Conservative-value family and there’s been a natural progression, but  the thing to remember though, is that when you’re in Council Chamber or you’re talking to a local person, the political thing goes out the window, for you have to talk to them on a one to one basis, the individual is all-important.

RL:  OK, we’ll let’s stop it there. That’s been very helpful. Thank you very much, that’s been very good.




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