I had hoped that by the time of this newsletter, that I can both crunch the numbers from the local elections this week, or continue with the analysis on sustainable transport spend from the last couple of weeks. Sadly, the local election results are still coming in, and I am still waiting on data requests for the funding. Whilst I await that, and given the local elections, I thought that I would repost a little something I had in drafts for a while but never sent. Enjoy.

I need to get this off my chest. Because it has been bugging the hell out of me for some time. Whilst we love the NHS and this vague notion of ‘key workers,’ a silent army works away in the background. Keeping vulnerable people cared for and our public services running. Doing things they were never asked to do, never trained to do, never imagined they would be doing. But are doing it anyway.

Us Brits love to tease them as officious. There are people who are more sinister about them, of course, but they are by far the minority. We never realise how much we value their work — apart from bin collections — because we never see them. Like a referee at a football match, we sure notice when they get it wrong, but when they do well they blend into the background.

I am talking about the 2.3 million council workers across the land. Performing what can only be described as minor miracles.

Councils and council workers are in the fight of their lives at the moment. Almost every member of transport staff that I have spoken over the last several ears barely have time for their normal day job, and unless its a statutory transport function its not worth doing at all.

The capacity in council critical services like Adult Social Care and Childrens Services was at breaking point before COVID hit. A lack of funding, chronic staff shortages, and constant political meddling to get a favourable news headline in the Daily Telegraph has seen to that. What capacity there was has all but collapsed in the face of an unprecedented national crisis.

In contrast, the highways functions are ok. Many are getting more investment, and that leads to an issue of not enough staff to meet the demand for the work. Despite that, authorities continure to keep the basic functions running.

This is not, however, reflective of Councils as a whole. Currently, local government is being kept together through a mixture of redeployment, volunteers, and sheer blind luck.

The choices they are facing is a stark one. Try and do a temporary road closure, or use that same resource to help deliver food to vulnerable adults? Expand the pavement, or help social workers file their paperwork? A bit of tactical urbanism, or bin bags for every household?

You think I am exaggerating. I can assure you this is quite real. This doesn’t come from just one conversation, it is numerous over the last several years. COVID made the issue much more severe.

I think transport is the most important thing in the world. But the reality is that there are more important things. If given a choice between a new bike lane, and getting medicine to vulnerable adults and children, there is no choice.

There are sadly people who will not be happy. They never are. The council will always be to blame, and to them it is appalling that council workers are not meeting their impossibly high standards when things are going well.

Do you want someone to blame?

• Blame ideologically-driven austerity that has ravaged local councils harder than any other public sector organisation, to the point where there is no capacity for taking any sort of shock. And that anything that smells like capacity is becried as wasting taxpayers money.

• Blame free market commentators and ‘researchers’ (you know who I am talking about) who call for Councils to raid their reserves and continue to cut because they don’t want their Council Tax bill to go up by £50 a year. And the very thought of the public sector existing enrages them.

• Blame the overt centralisation of our public policy, meaning that if central government gets caught flat-footed and mucks up the recovery, local councils pick up the pieces.

Don’t blame council workers, currently learning an entirely new role at pace to keep the public services vulnerable people rely afloat whilst we deal with this crisis.

If you cannot do that, get over yourself. Quickly. And step aside for people who want to help out. Quickly. There is no time for your complaining that the Council is not doing everything it can for your pet project.

This is not a time for haters or nay-sayers. It’s time for us to tell Council workers that we care about them, and what they are doing. Where even if we cannot directly help them right now, they are in our thoughts, and we wish them every bit of luck for the weeks ahead.

You are working wonders right now, and we have your back every step of the way. You have risen to the challenge because you know what is at stake, and you will keep rising to it. You don’t need me to tell you that there are people out there depending on you.

But there also people you can depend on, who support you through all of this. Keep being awesome, and keep doing amazing this. Because you are.