MP turned councillor gets stuck into new role

'Better communication on city centre redevelopment needed'

Former Plymouth MP turned city councillor Alison Raynsford has pledged to tackle noise nuisance in the city, get a better deal for some of its poorest residents and improve communications with the public as she gets stuck into her new role.

The Labour councillor, who won the recent by-election in St Peter and the Waterfront, admits being in local government for the first time is a whole new ball game from her days as MP for Devonport and then Moor View, but that being closer to the people and the issues is “rewarding.”

“Certainly you are far more likely as a local councillor to have direct physical contact with people in your ward compared to the people in your constituency as an MP,” she said.

“I used to get 150-200 emails a day as a MP, a lot of those were casework-related; case workers would take them up and run with them and bring them back to me for clearance. Here, it’s just me and the person who has an issue or problem or needs help or wants to tell me something, there is a different dynamic to it, which is actually lovely.

“Whether or not you can help, whether or not it’s a pleasant interaction, and they are not all, it’s lovely to see the whites of people’s eyes and have a conversation with them.”

For the Essex-born councillor who was an MP from 2005-2015 when she was known as Alison Seabeck, politics is in the blood. Her father, Michael Ward, was Labour MP for Peterborough after starting his political career as a councillor.

But being “dragged around delivering leaflets at the age of four” was not what Cllr Raynsford wanted for her own family, so she left joining politics until later.

“I didn’t feel I wanted to do that to my children. I experienced an almost invisible parent. Things have got a little better these days, they are far more family friendly, back then they definitely weren’t so I didn’t take the usual route for that reason.

“I do feel having had the experience of being an MP, I can bring something back, something that will be useful to Plymouth City Council.”

As an MP, Cllr Raynsford saw nine new schools built in her constituency, a brand new dental school and medical school facility and she was heavily involved in supporting Operation Encompass, a local initiative that went international, to ensure all children experiencing domestic abuse receive timely support in their schools.

On the doorsteps canvassing, and in the three weeks she has been in her new role, Cllr Raynsford said the big issues in her ward were the cost of living, with people struggling to pay bills and mortgages, and noise nuisance from motorbikes.

“Noisy motorbikes are extraordinary disruptive to some people’s lives in certain part of the ward, and myself and my colleagues are going to try and press the police because the police at the moment are saying the problem isn’t theirs.

“Vehicles being souped-up to make as much noise as they can is illegal, so it is a police problem,” she added.

Although Plymouth has not been selected to trial new ‘noise cameras’ which automatically detect vehicles which are breaking legal noise limits, Cllr Raynsford is working with Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Luke Pollard to try and find a solution.

She said St Peter and the Waterfront is an interesting, but polarised, ward.
“It has some people of the most well-off people in the city as well as some of the poorest in the city. It was one of the poorest wards in England in the early 1990s.

“There are some wonderful houses, but some the poorest, worst-maintained multi-occupied properties, with private landlords who are perhaps not doing all they should.

“Lots of people are doing two or three jobs to make ends meet. It’s an area with huge differences and big health differences based on wealth or lack of it. Whilst cost of living issues are national ones there are things we can do to help on a local level too.

“The council may be facing large financial pressures on its budget, but it is a case of prioritising where we put the money we have got.”

Employment prospects and wages in the city – which are below average if  Dockyard and some Derriford Hospital jobs are excluded – are expected to rise with such initiatives at the UK’s first National Marine Park and Freeport status, which is attracting investment.

The multi-million pound redevelopment plan for the city centre should also create more jobs.

Cllr Raynsford believes mistakes have been made in not communicating enough with the public over the controversial Armada Way tree-removal project.

The work by the city council was halted in March when opponents won a late-night injunction after felling had begun.  The former Conservative administration’s decision to cut down the trees is now the subject of a judicial review.

The new Labour council has vowed to clean up the mess likened to a “war zone” and is to remove the rest of the trees when the bird-nesting season is over. It is coming back with a revised scheme in the next few weeks which will go out for a “comprehensive consultation” with the public

Cllr Raynsford said:“What has struck me is what little easily accessible information there was up to this point that would have told the people….what was going in the city centre.

“Walking around the site this week I was told just how complex digging up the city centre is and the fact they had no idea what was underneath because post-war everything was chucked in a hole and things were built over the top.

“They found big slabs of concrete, tram lines, electric cables they didn’t know were there, all sorts of things lying close to each other that caused huge problems, one of the biggest holes ever seen was dug in order to have a reservoir of water down there… all of this stuff is incredibly clever, very complex and most people do not any idea just how difficult a job it is.

“I’m all for communication at any level so it could be as simple as cutting a hole in the hoarding so people can see what is going on and a wipeboard saying this is what’s happening today. It’s not rocket science but it draws people in.”

Cllr Raynsford is looking ahead to her task ahead: “I think it’s going to be really exciting, quite challenging because clearly the economy is still not quite going where we want it to go and we need a bit more growth, but with Plymouth’s skills base both in environmental science and marine engineering, I think we are incredibly placed as a city to grow.”