LGA chairman David Sparks reflects on a significant year for the sector and looks ahead to seeing the future impact of devolution

For me, I found pretty quickly that being a local councillor is not just an enormous privilege; being able to represent our residents and fight their corner is immensely rewarding too, and has to make it one of the best jobs around. This last year as chairman of the Local Government Association has given me the opportunity to represent both the residents of Dudley and residents and councils around the country – and it has been an extraordinary year.