Tory's Attack MP's Communications Allowance

Gordon Brown and Clive speek to local community

Clive Efford spends the maximum amount on his communications allowance to keep in touch with his constituents. Clive says, “David Cameron soaks up more of the public’s money on mortgage tax relief than I spend on my communicating with my constituents. I know which one I think gives greater value for money.”

Clive is one of the MPs that maintain regular contact with their constituents. He prides himself on the work he does within the community and enjoys working with people throughout the area to try to get things done. He has run many campaigns that have achieved a great deal of success:

The Eltham Centre
I campaigned for many years for a new leisure and education centre in our town centre. I maintained regular contact with people who were keen to see the new centre open.

Walkabouts in the community
I hold regular walkabouts whith local residents to find on-the-spot solutions to issues that concern them. I write out to a wide range of people and ask them to join me or to let me know if there are things that they want me look at. Residents and the officers accept that this is a good way of working and my walkabouts have been adopted by the council and many others. Over the 12 years that I have been doing them they have become the accepted way of working.

132 Bus service
I fought a very long campaign for a bus service liking Eltham to the O2 and North Greenwich underground station. Eventually our campaign had the support of thousands of local people. I wrote to them regularly to keep them informed of progress and to ask them to keep the pressure on London Transport to give us the new route.

B15 to Horn Park
Again this was a long hard fought campaign and despite many setbacks we managed to finally get the service to run to the Horn park estate. Again, I kept in regular contact with people on the Horn Park estate to get the new service.

Animal Welfare
There are many issues that I deal with as an MP that concern the welfare of animals, hunting with dogs, transporting livestock, protection of whales, fur trade, ivory trade and many more. I have a list of people that I keep informed on these types of issues.

Traffic management issues
I am often approached by people who are concerned about the dangers posed by speeding traffic or roads being used as rat runs. In order to gauge the views of the wider community I often write to the residents in that area to ask for their views. I also try to keep people informed of what action if any is going to be taken.

Consultation
I use my communications allowance to consult local people on a wide range of topics. The largest one was on the proposed changes to our local hospital services. In addition I have held consultations on local communities issues and bus services and I am currently campaigning for action to be taken to tackle the daily congestion at the Blackwall Tunnel.

These are just a small example of the way I have kept in touch with my constituents recently over the past 12 years. Anyone who wishes to be an MP who says that they will not use this money has no intention of being an active community-based MP. David Cameron does not represent progress – he is demanding that MPs go back to being the anonymous absentee landlords that they used to be.