Casework: How I can help you as your MP
From seagulls tearing into rubbish bags to families being made homeless, helping constituents with their problems is a huge part of the work of an MP.
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When members of the public write to me, or attend his surgeries, their issues are dealt with as casework. The workload is particularly high in Blackpool South, which has some of the most complex challenges of all constituencies in the country.
In my first 100 days in office myself and my constituency office team have dealt with over 2,000 cases – on average picking up around 20 new ones a day.
Russell, a 68-year-old retired chartered physiotherapist, contacted me with concerns about the general street scene.
“I walk every day with my dog around South Shore and the town centre and am aware of problems that contribute to people’s impression of Blackpool,” he said. “The town receives criticism from the outside press. It is often described as dirty and unkempt.
“A good example of what Chris’s office has been able to do is identify who is responsible for the disused cash machines that litter our town – boarded up and rusting away. It turned out that BT was responsible for the removal of these machines and Chris’s team identified eight across the town that are out of use. The one I originally pointed out as an eyesore has been taken away and replaced.
“There are other issues that I see around town which Chris’s office have raised on my behalf and are ongoing.”
Though a boarded-up and disused cash machine may seem like a small matter on the scale of problems Blackpool residents face, me and Russell agree that the general street scene contributes to our sense of local pride. As Russell puts it: “We have an attitude to simply put up with these things”.
For people whose lives are affected daily by them, these problems are anything but small.
“The alley has been clear since the MP intervened,” Elaine said. “I’ve never known it to be so quiet, with no seagulls hanging around waiting for the bags of rubbish”
When Elaine emailed my office in July, she was at a low ebb. The previous September she had a fall, fracturing her neck and breaking her back. She was housebound and the noise from seagulls scavenging in the rubbish bags in the alleyway was creating an unliveable situation for her.
“I have been in my rented house for nearly three years and it has been a hell hole,” she said. My office requested a clean up of the alleyway, which was completed within 24 hours. But days later the problem had reoccurred. A second clean up took place and a lock on the alley gate was repaired to ensure that people who don’t live in the area are unable to flytip there.
I then requested all households using the alley were provided with seagull-proof rubbish sacks. These are available to households which are unable to have a grey wheelie bin, due to a lack of access for refuse trucks, but many people don’t know about them or how to request them.
“The alley has been clear since the MP intervened,” Elaine said. “I’ve never known it to be so quiet, with no seagulls hanging around waiting for the bags of rubbish. Thanks to Chris and his team the problem was sorted out in super quick time and would like to thank them both from the bottom of my heart.”
Seagulls may be synonymous with seaside towns like Blackpool, but too many other problems, like homelessness, shouldn’t be.
“Within a couple of weeks I had a house and we have settled in really well. We all love the house and my mental health has been a lot better. ”
When Emma emailed me she was in a desperate situation.
“I felt I was backed into a corner with no support or help,” said the mum of three who was living with her children in the former dining room of a B&B with no windows that opened at the height of the summer.
The family had left their Grange Park flat due to extreme anti-social behaviour. When she came to me, the housing department was making a decision on whether she had made herself voluntarily homeless.
“I left due to witnessing prostitution and windows being smashed by drug dealers,” she said. “I had to report a machete incident to the police and my children had witnessed people hitting residents with bargepoles. The lady downstairs was walking around with a crack pipe and walked into my property.”
The family had been placed in the emergency B&B accommodation, which had no cooking facilities, for an initial seven week period. When Emma contacted me they had been there for eight – the period having been reset because she had gone to stay with friends for a few days to get respite from another impossible living situation.
Emma and her daughter’s mental health had severely declined and her son had gone to stay with her mum – finding it too challenging to stay in the B&B any longer.
After speaking with Emma’s support worker, I worked with the housing team at the council to find the family a home.
“Chris emailed me back instantly and helped massively. Within a couple of weeks I had a house and we have settled in really well. We all love the house and my mental health has been a lot better.
“If I didn’t have Chris’s help I don’t believe I’d be where I am today.”
Another mum in a desperate situation was Deniz. Deniz is a British citizen but her citizenship application for her son, who was about to turn two, was caught up in the huge backlog of Home Office cases.
“The Home Office wasn’t giving me any answers,” says Deniz. “I did everything they asked and more. I would call up and the staff on the phone were very nice, polite and understanding but all they kept saying was ‘you have to wait’.”
“My son was finally a British citizen. I was crying with happiness.”
While living in limbo, Deniz was unable to access any support for her son such as the standard child benefit payment. As a single mum she was struggling to survive.
My team was able to signpost Deniz to the network of food banks and hot meal providers across the town while I wrote to the Home Office on her behalf.
“I was very happy with Chris as he got back to me within 24 hours. I waited about two weeks and finally got my answer from the Home Office – my son was finally a British citizen. I was crying with happiness. Without Chris I don’t think it would have happened.”
Politics is people and being able to help residents of Blackpool South is what this job is all about. The people who come through my office doors or inbox are at the heart of my work as an MP and will inform the work I do at every level. My first priority will always be them.
Blackpool has a range of services available to meet residents’ needs. If you have explored them
but feel you need additional support with a problem email: chris.webb.mp@parliament.uk, call:
01253 532401 or write to: Chris Webb MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.
