LUCKY old Eddie Howe.

Not only is he feted as the man who took the Cherries to the top flight of English football, but this week he became an honorary freeman of Bournemouth.

You might wonder what perks that title confers on the AFC Bournemouth manager. Does he get to drive cattle through the Square, or hunt squirrels in the Lower Gardens?

In fact, the main honour bestowed on a freeman is that you get a reserved seat at Bournemouth council meetings and church services. Is there no end to the privileges associated with being a Premier League manager?

I don’t know whether this decision is binding on the new council that will replace Bournemouth, but if so, that would present Mr Howe with quite a dilemma. You see, council meetings are on Tuesday nights, and so are a lot of football fixtures, so there could be an empty spot in the dugout at the Vitality Stadium.

I don’t mean to make you madly envious, but for a few years, I had my own dedicated seat at Bournemouth council meetings. I was the Daily Echo’s local government correspondent, and as a result, I had a reserved spot right at the edge of the action.

I saw it all. Moving the minutes of the policy and resources committee. Questions to the council’s representative on the Dorset Fire Authority. Procedural motions under rule 69.

Oh yes, I’ll never forget the uproar when an opposition member moved for a recorded vote on an amendment to a motion. Totally blind-sided the mayor, who was looking the other way and had to consult the head of democratic services as the crowd went wild.

But seriously, I do think it was a good idea to give Eddie Howe this rare, symbolic honour. And having devoted a few paragraphs to poking fun at the way local government operates, I’m going to confess something: I did like going to those meetings, most of the time.

Yes, there was an awful lot of soporific procedural nonsense, and enough hot air to power the Town Hall, but there were important things at stake. And my role was to try and be the eyes and ears of the public on whose behalf the decisions were being made, which was a pretty important job. (Today, that job is being done very well indeed by my colleague Josh Wright, under the BBC-funded local democracy reporter scheme. He attends an awful lot of council meetings across the area, so that you don’t have to.)

Of course, one reason reporters act as the eyes and ears of the public is that, generally, the public do not want to attend with their own eyes and ears. While people will sometimes turn out to oppose a controversial decision, most of the speechifying takes place to an almost empty public gallery.

At one time, an attempt was made to take decision-making out into the town, by having Bournemouth council’s cabinet meet in the evenings, at schools or community centres. I thought it was an admirable idea, but the meetings still didn’t draw the crowds. I got the impression that if the cabinet met in the front room of the Timpkins family of Moordown, the Timpkins clan would excuse themselves and watch Corrie in the kitchen.

You could argue that this is no bad thing. We elect councillors to take decisions for us, and we don’t expect to have to be there to watch as they discuss the leisure services revenue account. But it would probably be a good idea if everybody paid more attention to civic affairs.

Sometimes, people would find the meetings frustrating and would wonder whether they could run the town better themselves. But occasionally, I think they would be impressed by the councillors who know their patch, speak up for their community and get things done.

Soon, there will be a new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council, whose members will be learning to run three towns at once. I’d recommend going along at least once, to see how they’re getting on. Don’t leave it all to Eddie Howe.