Retiring Councillor Simon Cooke tells colleagues 'We are vessels for the love that people have for their communities'

After 24 years in as a Councillor, Simon Cooke (Cons, Bingley Rural) recently attended his final full Council meeting before he stands down at May's local elections.

In recent years Cllr Cooke has been involved in the village of Cullingworth getting a new village hall, and his motion at last week's Council meeting called for more to be done to help other community groups take on the running of vital buildings.

This would include providing loans, offering advice on issues like planning and working with developers to make sure community groups get funding to take over the running of assets.

With funding for local government across the country decreasing, Community Asset Transfers have become more common as Council's pull out of running certain services or buildings.

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Cllr Cooke, a former leader of the Conservative Party in Bradford, quoted from Giovanni Guereschi to start his speech, and ended quoting Kipling.

He said: "Most of our work as councillors – and probably the thing that gives us most pleasure – is done in the communities we represent.

"I was sat on top of Denholme Edge the other day eating a ham and tomato sandwich, admiring the view. Much of what I see from there is Bingley Rural. And it is beautiful.

"Anyway I was sat there and I got to thinking. Each way I looked, into every nook of the places in that view there was a story – something that had been done to make the place a little better.

"Some of those stories were about stopping something – the ten year campaign, ending in the High Court, to stop a landfill blighting Denholme – but most were about improvement, little acts of betterment. A new kids playground, some traffic lights, a crossing – small things that matter to people far more than the big things we usually talk about in these Council meetings.

"Bradford is a place of a thousand little worlds, each one different and each one precious to the people who live it them. It is those little worlds that my motion is about.

" I’ve sat through – and made the occasional contribution to – over 200 council meetings. A lot of what we do features much sound and fury but little real purpose beyond political campaigning. But in and amongst this are little ideas – often quiet – that we soon forget about but which make a real difference to some of those little worlds.

"In the end we’re not measured by the titles we had, the power we wielded or the things we said, we’re tested on whether we did good and if, at the end of our time, we made the places we represent just a little bit better.

"In Rudyard Kipling’s paean to his home county of Sussex he starts like this:

God gave all men all earth to love

But, since our hearts are small

Ordained for each one spot should prove

Beloved over all…

"We are vessels for the love that people have for their communities, their neighbourhoods – you all know this – and I hope that, in our small way, we can help those people make their little worlds just that little better."

Councillor Alex Ross Shaw, portfolio holder for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, pointed to successful transfers like Ilkley Manor House, and said community groups were best placed to run many local facilities.

The Council voted to support Cllr Cooke's motion.