WORCESTERSHIRE will welcome at least one new MP next month and many new councillors - so what advice do the politicians of yesterday have for them?

“You’ve got to tell people the truth, even if you don’t know the answer,” says Mike Layland, who served a staggering 44 years on Worcester City Council before stepping down in 2012.

“If you don’t tell people the truth the electors will catch you out - if someone asked me something and I didn’t know the answer, I’d say ‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out’.”

Mr Layland was handed the Freedom of the City last year, joining the likes of Worcester Warriors owner Cecil Duckworth, Sir Edward Elgar and former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in becoming one of the city’s honoured men.

Now 79, of Shap Drive, Warndon, the former Labour councillor turned independent admits nobody entering politics can wave a magic wand.

He also knows the ups and downs of life in the corridors of power, having first being elected in 1966 for Labour before quitting the party to go it alone.

“When you’re a councillor and someone contacts you, it’s usually the biggest problem they’ve got in their lives,” he said.

“You can’t wave a magic wand, but you can do your best to help them.

“I’m not big on computers and if I had a phone call, I’d go straight up and see them, and they’d sometimes say ‘that was quick’.

“But that was the best way to do it, I’d ask myself ‘would I like it’ if I was in their position, and if the answer was no, why should they put up with it?”

But if the old school optimism may be a tonic for the scores of candidates facing one of their biggest nights of their lives in May, consider the views of Lib Dem Ken Carpenter.

Mr Carpenter, who lives in Claines, served four years on the city council from 2010-2014 and also had a spell on Malvern Hills District Council in the 1980s.

His wife Sue Askin is still a Lib Dem county councillor, and he warns those entering it now to be realistic.

If anything, he says the changes to local government during the 1990s which led to the old committee system being scrapped, have led to the roles being less valuable.

Almost all councils around the country now operate in a similar fashion to national Government, with a decision-making cabinet taking the main decisions, led by a leader from the controlling group.

The full council is there to vote on the budget, primarily.

“Don’t expect to achieve anything,” he said.

“When I sat on Malvern Hills District Council I once got a Tree Preservation Order on a hedgerow, and I was most proud of that.

“By that, you can measure what is possible for you to achieve.

“I think the cabinet system is very unhelpful to anyone who is not the leader of the controlling group, otherwise the only authority you have is as one member of a group of say 54 people - you put your hands in the air to vote and beyond that, it’s about persuasion.”

Pensioner Aubrey Tarbuck, who lives at Hallow, is now 84 and spent years as a Conservative councillor in Worcester.

He was first elected in 1966 in Nunnery and lost his seat in 1971 but returned in 1998 for St Peter’s, where he remained until last year.

But like Mr Layland he also had his ups and downs, and ended up trying to stand again for election last year before being de-selected by his old party.

“I found it very good, I didn’t have any problems with it over the years,” he said.

“One thing I would say is, I remember when I was a councillor one guy once said to me ‘standing as an independent is very difficult’ - if you are a Conservative or belong to a party it’s a lot easier.

“I found it rewarding, and those getting in now will find that too.”

The one parliamentary seat guaranteed a new MP is Mid-Worcestershire, where Conservative Sir Peter Luff has now retired.

And at Worcester City Council, with Lib Dem Councillor Liz Smith doing the same it means the Claines ward will get a new face, and likewise in Warndon Parish North, where Conservative Douglas Wilkinson has stepped down due to work.