An MP's Postbag grows

From Stella Creasy MP's weekly email:

Walthamstow MP Postbag & Inbox: Response Time  

As well as my formal legislative duties in parliament as your representative, and the campaigns I have been leading on such as tackling violence against women and legal loan sharking, as an MP I have an advocacy role in our community and in public policy. Therefore, each week my office receives between 1,500 to 2,300 emails or letters from local residents-from matters relating to their personal circumstances, requests for assistance or advice to circulars from campaigns and projects.

 

I make a personal point of reading all correspondence from Walthamstow residents and I always welcome the opportunity to hear from consitutents about their concerns as well as to assist them. However, the growing volume and nature of this correspondence means that my team is experiencing difficulties in responding to these queries as quickly as I would like and so I thought it would be helpful to provide some details on this for Walthamstow residents who may be concerned. 

 

As the impact of austerity on Walthamstow becomes clear and cuts to other advice services in our area take effect, my office is receiving an increase in correspondence from local residents in personal difficulties. To give just one indicator of this, the amount of housing casework my office receives has increased by 50% in the last few months on the previous year. As such individuals are often in urgent need of assistance given their risk of destitution, these sometimes complex cases are prioritised for action by me and my staff team. 

 

In addition to this correspondence, I now receive between 7-9 campaign emails or postcards each week, sometimes from between 50 - 400 residents each time. All of these campaigns raise important concerns- below is a sample of the issues residents have raised with me in recent weeks in this way: 

• Changes to Teacher’s Pay and Pensions 
• Marriage (Same Sex Bill) 
• Maintaining Post Office Services 
• Energy Bill and Green Jobs
• NHS Privatisation 
• The future nature of the International Arms Treaty 
• The Leveson Inquiry
• The proposed cull of badgers
• Speculation within the food commodities market 
• The 'IF' campaign regarding the forthcoming Budget 
• The possible repeal of the Hunting Act
• Tax Exemptions for Private Healthcare Providers
• The provision of first aid skills within schools
• The Justice and Security Bill
• Banking Inquiry
• Pregnant Women seeking Asylum 
• Air Passenger Duty

With each of these issues I will be ensuring that Ministers responsible for the relevant area of public policy are aware of the nature and scale of respresentation I have had from Walthamstow residents and updating all those who have written to me about these issues on the response I receive. However, as the increase in correspondence my office is receiving is generating a backlog of responses to both these policy issues and personal casework matters, I wanted to assure Walthamstow residents that I had received emails on these subjects and will be responding in due course.

 

To be fair to those who have written about public policy issues, I do not respond to campaign 'tweets' or facebook messages and so if you wish to raise an issue with me as your local MP it is best to email or write to me directly. I am also currently seeking additional funding from the parliamentary authorities to provide for additional staffing to manage this increase in requests. Anyone who wishes to know more about this or even wishes to support this request should get in touch.