Guest and speaker at the Rotary Club of Anstruther’s meeting of 18th March was Councillor Elizabeth Riches. Elizabeth is one of the councillors for the East Neuk and Landward Ward, which comprises 15 or 16 communities - many of which have their own community councils.

Rotary is of course a non-political organisation and Elizabeth took care to respect this as she delivered a very interesting talk, describing the role and responsibilities of a councillor. One thing that was made clear is the limits of the job – all decisions are made by the appropriate Fife Council committee; councillors are not managers and do not have individual powers. However it was equally clear that an effective councillor has a duty to listen to and represent ALL residents and to be prepared to put forward views that may be different to ones own. Elizabeth felt it to be a great honour to be elected to serve.

We heard something of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of a councillors work at local and regional level; the heavy briefing papers, the need to balance often conflicting views and pressures, the wide range of projects - all important, and all to be accomplished with diminishing resources. Social work, Education, Roads, Care of the Elderly, Housing – the list seemed daunting.

It was interesting to hear also of Elizabeth’s life before politics. Of living with the Inuit with late husband David, a Social Anthropologist at St Andrews University and then a successful herb growing business - before a change of direction in 1990 and being elected, as she humorously commented, after two recounts!

In conclusion Elizabeth summarised by emphasising that she sees her role as ‘making the most of the art of the possible’.  A vote of thanks for a most interesting talk was proposed by Andrew Matthew.