Contacting Your MP About a Neighbourhood Problem

Many people will often turn to their MP in order to try to get a particular neighbourhood problem resolved. What people tend to forget, however, is that while your MP is there to serve members of their constituency, there are so many people who make up the constituency that they cannot be expected to get personally involved in specific issues relating to an individual.

Their role is to help in matters which central government or Parliament is responsible for and, while they do have a duty to represent the general issues which affect their constituency and, where possible, to bring those to the attention of the wider audience of influential MPs and cabinet ministers in the House of Commons, they’re not there to resolve specific personal issues.

What MPs Do Not Get Involved With

Before attempting to contact your MP, just remember that they won’t get involved in certain issues such as these below, although this isn’t an exhaustive list:

• Family disputes
• Problems and Disputes With Neighbours
• Decisions made by courts
• Disputes with an employer

What Does My MP Actually Do Then?

It’s first of all important to state that MPs are genuinely concerned about issues that affect their constituents. After all, it’s the constituents that have got them to their position in the first place by voting for them, so they are morally obliged to serve you. They’ll often have local councillors who they will liaise with about certain issues going on in the constituency and, if a neighbourhood has a specific problem or issue, it will usually be the local councillor who will raise that with your MP.

So, if you do have a specific point you wish to raise, it’s often better to contact your local councillor instead of your MP, as that is more likely to result in your MP taking notice of a particular issue. This might include things like the level of services being provided by your local council such as problems with rubbish collections, public amenities, council housing repairs and much more. They will also be able to explain the Local Government Policies within a neighbourhood.

Contacting Your MP

One of the best ways of contacting your MP is to keep an eye out in your local newspaper or check your local library’s notice board as MPs hold regular ‘surgeries’ once every month or so at places like a local library or community centre. Obviously, they’ll only be there for an hour or so, and there may be many people wishing to raise issues, so there are no guarantees that they will be able to answer any specific points you may wish to make or that you’ll have the chance to raise your point at a specific time.

Most MPs will also tend to update you by sending you their own leaflets telling you what issues they’ve been working on for the benefit of the local constituency. In this case, you’ll often find that they might already be aware of certain issues within the constituency which you were going to highlight, and that they are trying to resolve particular problems that might be occurring.

If, however, you do feel a strong urge to contact your MP, the best way to go to about is in writing. You should write to them at the House of Commons address as they are busy people and are often travelling about. Any mail directed to them will be dealt with by their office staff via a letter to the House of Commons. It has its own website which, if you put in your postcode, will provide you with the name of your local MP. Many will also include an email address, although don’t assume that because you send them an email you’ll a) necessarily receive a response, and b) that they’ll get to read your email personally. As mentioned previously, they are busy people and usually have secretaries who carry out much of their administrative work.