Kirklees councillors are struggling under the pressure of too much work, a council committee agreed.
At a meeting, a group of four councillors all expressed concerns that their workloads have got too big.
And they said something needs to be done before they come to an “impasse” with officials over who does what.
The fears were raised by Tory, Clr David Hall, at a discussion about Kirklees’ plans to cope with a further £69m cuts on top of the £83m slashed over the past four years.
The proposal, dubbed ‘New Council’, outlines new ways of working and admits the council can now only afford to manage core services such as social services, highways and refuse.
It says the council should focus on the things that only it can do and predicts changes will be felt by the public and staff.
New Council also seeks to shift some responsibilities to community groups, the third sector and other institutions but says people will have to do more for themselves.
And it says councillors local knowledge should be tapped into with the 69 elected members more involved in the daily work of the council.
But Clr Hall, deputy leader of the Conservative group, said he was already overloaded with work and felt “tension” was building between councillors and officials as officers tried to delegate more tasks.
“The changing role of councillors concerns me,” he told his three colleagues on the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.
“The council is changing, and it would be foolish to suppose the role of councillors won’t change.
“But what bothers me is, already, when meeting with officers they are pushing back saying, ‘What can you do?’.
“I say, ‘I haven’t any time, you will have to do it’.
“There’s some umming and ahhing, there’s more tension, probably because there’s fewer officers and more work to do.”
Councillors’ annual allowances were frozen for the fifth year running last year.
Their basic allowance is £12,566, far less than the median Yorkshire salary of £20,282.
Councillors can boost their income by taking on extra responsibilities from an extra £1,227 for membership of a committee to £25,155 for being leader of the council.
Clr Hall said he was already “bogged down” with ward work which left him struggling to contribute to the council’s strategic priorities.
Committee chair, Julie Stewart-Turner, agreed.
The Green party member said: “I do 40 to 50 hours a week as a councillor – it’s a struggle to make ends meet some times.
“We’re under huge amounts of pressure.”
Lib Dem, Clr Cahal Burke and Labour’s Carole Pattison also agreed with Clr Hall.
Clr Burke said the cull of council officers meant it was taking more time to get problems resolved for residents, which reflected badly on councillors.
“The increasing work load does take more time to deal with as there’s a lot less people around,” he said.
