IS ANYBODY LISTENING?

One of the key skills of representing others in public life is the ability to be able to listen. I have on occasion been told that I am not a particularly good listener, something that I cannot always disagree with. Whilst I am able to repeat verbatim what someone has told me, my brain is going ten to the dozen and already I am thinking of how best to respond. 

With so many diversions vying for our attention it can be difficult to focus. However, what the general public, having put us into office, want is to feel that someone, somewhere, cares enough to try to resolve whatever problems they are facing. The challenge as an elected representative is that whilst they are dependent upon us to make the necessary contacts this is becoming increasingly difficult.  

In recent years, as we have been experiencing the relentless push towards technology, which as often as not does not work effectively, it is now practically impossible to speak to a real, live, person. I yearn for the time when I could pick up the phone and, within a matter of minutes, have the problem solved. Sadly, this is no longer the case. Apart from the cumbersome completion of online forms, an immediate response can no longer be expected. Certainly, Covid aside, which to my mind, continues to be used as an excuse for poor performance and lack of proper public engagement, our town and parish councils have been complaining long and hard about the changes that are being made, all supposedly in the name of efficiency and progress.  

No longer are paper copies of planning applications made available to clerks, and on a daily basis I am contacted by local residents who cannot readily access information about what is happening in their local communities. This is unacceptable, considering that it is these very people who are paying the wages of our local authority officers and elected members. There are times, increasingly so, when it seems that it is more a case of the tail wagging the dog.