Sugar coating skin for old councillor (8)
I believe the answer is:
alderman
'councillor' is the definition.
(alderman is a kind of councillor)
'sugar coating skin for old' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'skin' could be 'derm' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'derm' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'alan' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alderman that I've seen before include "Old municipal official" , "Former civic dignitary" , "Bigwig" , "Member of an English city council" , "Member of a local legislative body" .)