Casework

I've been discussing how people can contact us about casework, with Alan and Susan, the other two Labour councillors in Perry Vale. (Unlike some of our comrades, at least we haven't had opposition councillors elected in the ward to complicate things.)

My own view is that surgeries (where one of us sits, usually on our own, in some office on a Saturday morning, waiting for a constituent with a housing problem to come along; or not)
are a poor way of being accessible to people, and that being reachable by phone/email/letter would free our time to do street surgeries and other, more useful activities.

But it's sometimes useful, to some people, to actually be able to come and talk to us and let us take copies of correspondence and so on. Perry Vale councillors used to use the Old Fire Station (on the corner of Perry Vale and Woolstone Road, which still houses some Lewisham Housing staff; but it's not used by the public any more to visit housing officers).

Susan has been to visit St George's Church Centre, at the other (nearer to Catford) end of Woolstone Road, which seems to have several community (not particularly religious) activities on Saturdays and a small cafe. If they'll give us the use of a suitable interview room and space for people to wait, on one Saturday morning a month, I think it would be a much better place to meet people. And we can buy them a cup of tea while they tell us their troubles!