This is an old report (December 2014) but raises some current pertinent issues. With the creation of “Greater Exeter”, the “East Devon Growth Point Enterprise Zone” and the with interference of the Local Enterprise Partnership in the devolution process, what now is the role of the back-bench councillor? Or even the councillors on the Cabinet who have not moved up the pecking-order to be involved in these new Quangos?

Is there still a role for councillors who are not in the Golden and Platinum Circles of power? Councillors in the ruling party and other parties who are increasingly isolated from decision-making at just about every level except the parochial (the natural domain of town and parish councillors)?

“A new study suggests there is a growing split among councillors, with backbenchers and cabinet members effectively becoming ‘two tribes’.
... Councillors that exercise executive decision-making powers, or those in waiting to occupy such roles, expressed persistently different views from what we might term “backbench” members, regardless of political persuasion.
‘Party groups are a means whereby any potential divisions were mediated, but the poll raises questions as to whether the party group is up to the task of restraining the institutional drivers of the modernisation agenda.

‘This study shows there is a need to find a way to better recognise the contribution of councillors who may be focused on serving their communities but feel disconnected from decision-making.’

http://www.localgov.co.uk/Modernisation-has-caused-tribal-mentality-among-councillors/37844