JOB DONE!
After two years as a Shirebrook Town Council councillor, I can firmly say that 99% of a councillor’s work escapes the attention of 99% of the town’s residents. It is, therefore, time to describe what examples of issues are dealt with by councillors who help residents directly, beyond the Chamber of STC, face to face. These councillors meet that 1% of residents who know a little more about the behaviour of councillors in the non-political environment.
If you are only interested in examples of my work for local people, then you need to scroll through the introduction and find the paragraph entitled LEAVES, LEAVES EVERYWHERE!!! Everything between that sentence and that paragraph is just an exciting, tension-building introduction. Of course, I encourage you to read the whole thing.
MY LOCAL COUNCILLOR? NO IDEA WHO HE IS!
There are STC councillors with a long history of helping residents, but I won’t write about that for two reasons. One: I need more time to do decent research. As a substitute, I will present some of my interventions. The second reason is also time. The time I would have to spend writing after getting the materials from the research.
But I will say it in a nutshell – the fact that 99% of the residents do not know what is really going on in STC makes them stop identifying with the town. This ultimately translates into low participation in elections and low-quality elected representatives. Democracy stops working if people stop participating in it – which is the situation I found when I first ran for STC. As proof, I can present a spreadsheet showing that in the last election, Shirebrook residents were the least active voters in the District. This situation must not happen again. This situation is an embarrassment to Shirebrook.
THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF BEING A COUNCILLOR
I am generally a shy person, avoiding large groups of people. I’m not comfortable at parties and am not too fond of small talk. That’s why those interventions are one of the most complex parts of being a councillor. If I avoided such issues, I wouldn’t be fulfilling my duties. So I’m leaving my warm comfort zone because I’m not sure how long my STC adventure will last. When my STC adventure is over, I want to walk off into the sunset with my head raised high and a heart filled with a sense of duty well done.
Humans are strange animals – often, difficulties and adversity make us stronger, and when things are just the way we like them, we become languid and lazy and stop developing. Therefore, whenever I am contacted by a constituent – no matter how difficult their case seems – I throw myself into my work with the same dedication as if it were my personal problem. Every message, phone call, and conversation with a constituent I don’t know is an opportunity for me to break down my own barriers and force myself to step outside my ‘comfort zone’. Sometimes I succeed in helping. Sometimes I fail, but I always learn something new with the hope that this knowledge will be useful in the future to help someone else.
That is what today’s article is about – being accessible and helpful to local people.
WE ARE ALMOST THERE!
I’ve rambled on again, and the article was only supposed to be about a few cases describing how I helped the residents. So, to end this long introduction, I’ll cut to the chase. The examples chosen below are just a few of the cases I have helped residents with. I would not want readers who are thinking of running for STC to think that this is a regular part of a councillor’s job. It’s not.
Generally, interventions of this type are rare, and the fact that there are as many as 16 councillors allows them to be spread evenly enough that they do not overburden individual councillors. I’m sure several other councillors could tell a few similar stories, and just as they have no idea what I did-I have no idea what they did.
I’m changing that tradition a bit because it pains me to be accused of not doing anything positive. I’m doing my best, and I don’t write about it. This time, however, I approached a few residents to ask permission to publish some stories. All those contacted gave me permission.
I invite you to read the actual content of the article:
LEAVES, LEAVES EVERYWHERE!!!
Typical councillor intervention. Even though it sounded typical, I still had to ask for directions on a special chat room for Conservative Party members active in Bolsover District. Whenever I don’t know something, I quickly throw a question in there, and someone more experienced tells me what to do.
Maybe I shouldn’t give away my secret? Eh! Too late 😉 But seriously- I’m writing this to underline how inexperienced I am. Constituents criticising my behaviour and achievements need to remember- I just started. It’s a learning curve. I will make mistakes. I’m getting better, but less than two years is not enough to learn this “trade”.
BDC has never given me any training. In STC, I have to find everything myself, which is always challenging. So sometimes, I need help, guidance, and advice. Asking other active Conservatives is the only way forward for me. I’m always very careful to keep all residents’ personal details to myself, and I’m not violating my work ethic here in any way. I’m just using the tools and contacts that I have at hand. For me, the most important thing is the result – solving the resident’s problem.
So what’s the deal with the leaves? I was contacted by a resident complaining that there were so many wet leaves in front of his house that they were starting to create a slipping hazard. I didn’t know how to help, so I quickly asked in the Conservatives’ chat. As you can see, after just nine minutes Cllr Maxine Dixon from Barlborough gave me a hint.
I called the person recommended by Cllr Maxine Dixon and spoke to an admittedly very nice and helpful BDC worker. After some time, the resident contacted me again and confirmed that my intervention had worked because the street sweeper had turned up. I like this feeling- a small thing, but it gives joy. Then the resident added a “but”- the sweeper cleaned all street but skipped the place mentioned by a resident. Finally, the resident confirmed that parked cars blocked the area at the moment, so the sweeper didn’t have access to it. Still- if you think about it, it’s hilarious—such an effort and sweeper cleaned the whole neighbourhood, but not the place that started this entire issue.
Of course, it’s not the fault of the BDC worker. It was just an unfortunate coincidence. Still- if you noticed recently that leaves disappeared in Long Lane area- it was the BDC sweeper after my tip following the resident’s request. Thanks to the resident for doing something for the whole area!
COUNCIL HOUSE PROBLEM
This situation happened last year, just before Christmas. The person who contacted me received my contact details from a person I had previously helped with a smaller matter (I won’t describe it – it was a small thing). Anyway- the case had been going on for several months before I showed up, leading the occupants of this house into serious health and financial problems.
Well, for some time, there had been an intense, unpleasant stench inside the house. The residents contacted the landlord, and the water supplier, everywhere possible, but the stench remained. Attempts were made to replace some of the sanitary fittings, and seals were replaced, but the stench remained.
Before Christmas, someone gave these residents the idea to contact me. The first contact was made via Facebook, and after reading the initial report, I immediately asked if I could visit the resident to get a better idea of the situation.
The resident immediately agreed to the proposal, and two hours later, I knocked on the door. The house is owned by the Council. It looks like one of the thousands of houses- nothing special from the street. However, inside, it looked beautiful. Neat, tidy, clean: not house- home. Just…. the stench. Unbearable. I won’t describe what I did, but I admit I didn’t need encouragement to act- the stench forced me. This time I also decided to intervene with the district councillors and the BDC itself. With a concerted effort, we persuaded BDC to prioritise the issue.
One of the sewage pipes running directly under the house had burst. As a result, when the sewage level in the system increased (e.g. when people were returning from work), the sewage spilt out of the pipe and soaked into the ground under the house. The stench thus seeped into the home.
A quick pipe replacement took care of the problem – the residents spent Christmas together, as a family, in a house smelling of Christmas trees, not sewage. Job done!
PARKING PROBLEM
As in the above-mentioned cases, the resident gave me permission to publish the case, but when I started to describe it, I found that it would be difficult because the smallest detail would give away the place of intervention. For this reason, I will describe the case in a very general way and edit the photo illustrating the first part of the intervention so as not to give too much information away. I will not mention the second part of the intervention because… I don’t know how to describe it without going into nasty details. The second case is still ongoing.
Well, I was contacted by a resident of a cul-de-sac street. Due to the cramped conditions and a low number of parking spaces, there have been times when the end of the street where the turning space is located has been so packed with cars that the resident has constant problems parking his car within the boundaries of his property. In addition, he also noted that a refuse collection lorry and an ambulance had similar problems accessing this part of his street.
After discussing possible solutions, I contacted Derbyshire County Council on his behalf to ask for help. DCC’s response was swift. DCC came up with a very interesting proposal to resolve the situation.
So the whole problem was that the resident didn’t know who to ask for help in this matter. My role was only limited to pointing out the source where to seek help. To make it easier for the resident, I also made the initial contact on his behalf, and from the moment of the first DCC response- the resident had already managed on his own by keeping me ‘in the loop’ just to make sure he was doing everything right.
DOOR TO A BRIGHTER FUTURE
In turn, this case and its resolution can help anyone planning to buy a new home in the UK, as its reach is far greater than our own Shirebrook. I won’t hide- thanks to this case, I found out and learnt something I had no idea about. I don’t plan to buy a new house, but thanks to this case, from now on, I will know how to help people in a similar situation. I am guessing that more experienced councillors will shrug their shoulders at this, but it is a huge success for me (and the resident in question). It is rare in a councillor’s job to have tangible results.
I must also point out that for some time now, the names of other places in the District have started to appear more and more on the S247 visitor list. I know I am a Shirebrook South councillor and should be helping the residents of my ward, but this matter appalled me that I helped even though the person was from outside Shirebrook.
In short, the resident bought a newly built house. Unlike when you buy a second-hand house, there are sometimes minor defects, which the developer has to repair under guarantee. In the case in question, the same happened, but at a certain point, the developer stopped answering emails, sending people to fix things, and repairing defects. While he fixed the smaller problems, he simply ignored the two most serious ones. Then he started ignoring their recent customer.
The resident emailed, phoned and asked, but the longer he tried to do something, the less responsive the developer became. In the end, the resident needed to seek legal advice, but as is often the case with new homeowners – the financial situation is tight and fighting a powerful developer does not sound like something cheap. This is where the case came to me.
In the case described, two of the ‘deficiencies’ were serious enough to affect the quality of life and the health of the resident and his family. We started with the easier case of a defect in the fixing of the front door. At first, I thought it could be sorted out with the developer, but I soon realised that this led nowhere. So I started looking on the internet for descriptions of similar situations.
I ended up on the website of an organisation I had never heard of before- NHBC (National House Building Council). I have to admit that the resident and I were shocked by the speed with which their inspector acted. The resident, of course, had to fill in paperwork, and attach scans of emails and documents he had sent to the developer. Once the documentation was sent, the organisation assigned its inspector to the case, who paid the resident a visit and commissioned specialists to draw up their reports.
Before I show the result of all this, I should explain the NHBC. To this day, I don’t quite understand what principle it works on, but it looks as if the NHBC is an organisation with which developers insure themselves against the high cost of repairs to the homes sold under their guarantee.
Here is a piece of advice for anyone buying a newly built house- make sure the developer is insured with the NHBC. If he is, then in the event of any problems- deal with everything with the developer by email only and not by phone. This way, you will have a trail of documents that NHBC can use.
As I mentioned, the resident had two problems. As of today, both have been successfully resolved. Here is proof of the outcome of the door issue, a letter from NHBC confirming payment of the funds required to repair/replace the door:
THE END
There will be no cooldown because this article has taken me too long anyway and appears several hours late compared to the usual publication time. See you next week.
