TACKLING the problems the coronavirus pandemic has thrown up has been a huge challenge for local authorities across the country — so imagine the tests this has caused for bosses of a council which has only just come into existence!

That is the reality for Martin Tett, leader of Buckinghamshire Council.

Before the county’s five authorities merged into one new unitary body on April 1, councillor Tett was the leader of Buckinghamshire County Council and had been since 2011.

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Speaking to the Bucks Free Press, the Conservative councillor said the period of time where the merger of the councils finally came together and the rise of the coronavirus pandemic represented the toughest time in his local government career so far.

Talking about the differences between the councils he has led, he added: “This is more than a full-time job. People tend to think it’s like running a parish council — it’s not!

“It has similarities and differences.

“One thing I am very clear on is this is a new council.

“This is not the county council just rolled over.

“Its membership is drawn from the best of the district councils with new values, new experiences, and new ways of doing things.”

Being leader of the new council may come with its challenges, but Cllr Tett is used to tough tests.

He told BFP he has been interested in politics from his early teenage years having been brought up in a “political environment”.

His father was the chairman of a local Liberal Party group, whereas his mother was a “working-class Tory”, meaning he grew up in a “working-class home from different sides of the [political] spectrum.”

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At The University of Manchester, he studied modern history and economics and became Vice President of his university’s student’s union, attending conferences at a time when the National Union of Students was “dominated by the far-left”.

Immediately after leaving university in 1977, he joined British Airways’ marketing department.

He took his first steps into local politics just a year later in 1978 when he stood for election for a seat in Hillingdon borough and won with a majority of almost 2,300.

Councillor Tett remained on the council for four years before standing down in 1982 in order to focus on his career as a marketing consultant at Deloitte.

He moved to Buckinghamshire in 1984, the same year he joined BT where he spent the next fourteen years before joining a joint venture communications business in 1998.

In 2005, councillor Tett moved back into the world of politics after being elected as a ward member for Little Chalfont and Amersham Common at Buckinghamshire County Council, the same ward he represents today.

He became a cabinet member by 2007 before becoming leader in 2011.

In his 36 years in the county, Martin has been prominent in campaigning against the controversial HS2 project and has spearheaded the merger of the five councils.

He has also had plenty of time to get to know all of the many beautiful parts of Buckinghamshire.

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“I moved out here and I thought I might stay a couple of years, move on and I imagined myself living somewhere in London. I’d never even heard of Amersham!”, he said.

“But I just love the area, I love Buckinghamshire. I think it’s a fabulous place to live. I put down roots here, I got married here and raised a family here.

“One thing about Buckinghamshire is it’s varied. You’ve got the river area around Marlow which I think is fantastic, you’ve got the Chiltern hills. That’s just fabulous.

“Then you’ve got some of those picturesque villages in the country in the Aylesbury Vale area, too.”

Councillor Tett has been consistent in condemning fly-tippers who ruin the views in Bucks by dumping their waste in the countryside.

Eliminating the “dirty” and “anti-social” issue, for which he has a “long-term hatred”, is one of Cllr Tett’s priorities as the leader amongst a range of other targets.

Addressing the question around providing affordable housing and reducing homelessness is one.

He said: “There are too many people in the county who are homeless and there are too many people who are rough sleeping.

“We need to try and find ways of providing housing for people that are affordable.

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“There will be quite a big focus on how we can use some of the assets we’ve got, particularly around some of the brownfield sites or surplus buildings and possibly looking at how we move those into becoming good value accomodation for people.”

Another issue his administration faces is making sure roads are in good condition.

“We spent a fortune on our roads in the last nine years but I am always aware bad winters really knock us back.

“I really want to see us focus very heavily on patching those roads up again.

“It’s one of the touchstones residents have about how good a council is, candidly.

“For most people, the roads are the most tangible thing they will see.”

Speaking to the BFP, Cllr Tett repeatedly states he is conscious a lot of residents do not see what the council is doing for its residents — especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

His administration’s aims and focuses will be put on hold because of the pandemic, Cllr Tett says, as he believes the virus will “dominate” the council’s activities — such as getting services back up and running, helping local business and supporting residents — for “at least the rest of the year.”

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But despite bins being collected and potholes getting filled being some of the only things some residents might see the council doing over the coming months, Cllr Tett says there is a lot more going on in the background, and this will be the case once the pandemic is over, too.

“We’re doing a phenomenal amount but I’m very conscious a lot of people don’t see that”, he added.

“We are working flat out to support the most vulnerable.

“It takes an enormous amount of effort but it’s invisible to some residents.

“The decisions we make change people’s lives, they really do. If we make the wrong decision, people die.

“I read these ‘need-to-knows’ [about vulnerable people] and you want to cry because you realise life interventions make real differences in people’s welfare.

“What you decide to do in a case can determine whether somebody has a decent life or not.”