Staying in touch with our voters

I happen to strongly agree with the Islington Labour policy that it is important to stay in touch with our constituents at all times, and not just at election times.  After all, it is a Councillor's most important role to look after their constituents, and I am acutely concious that it is my constituent's who elected me, and who will decide if I get re-elected.

Yesterday we did some door-knocking on Bentham Court Estate, and got a very warm reception from everyone we spoke to.  I picked up the usual sort of case-work from this session, cleaning, housing re-allocations, shoddy building works, broken entrance gates, etc,.  Also very noticeable was the difference in standards between the blocks managed by Cirle Anglia and those managed by HFI.

Everyone is also deeply worried about the cuts that the Tory-led Government are going to inflict on Islington, but I don't think people realise just how bad, and destructive, it will be until the cuts really start to bite.

At the same time, residents on Bentham Court are particularly pleased with the new adventure play area being constructed for children on the estate.  It looks great, and will provide an excellent, overlooked playspace for kids to play in.  The picture shows our canvassing team next to the new playground, from left to right, Andy, Nick, Marina, Felix, our ward organiser and myself.  We had a good morning.