After several weeks of campaigning for the local elections, it’s interesting to reflect on some of the issues people raised when we spoke to them on the doorstep. Nothing is off limits and voters often raise concerns totally unrelated to local issues. Nothing wrong with that but it can feel at times as if people need simply to have someone from ‘politics’ to listen. And the number of people who said “you are the first person from any political party to knock on my door and speak to me” was surprisingly high.

It is hard to avoid the impression that many people feel frustrated by, and even alienated from, politics in general and local politics in particular. Of course, the stock answer is to vote to make your voice heard but in these days of social media the desire for face-to-face contact and someone to listen was apparent.  Of course, no matter which political party we represent, there are always some electors who don’t want to speak to you and your party. And others who don’t trust any politicians – what might be called, the ‘plague on all your houses’ tendency. The behaviour of MPs in Westminster in particular coming in for some serious criticism.

Yet once engaged, people can be very precise and knowledgeable about the issues they would like to be tackled whether it’s the responsibility of the District Council, County Council or Westminster Government. One of the many things that came up in campaigning for last week’s Bicester elections for example was the disconnect, as people saw it, between the amount of physical development which Bicester is experiencing now and into the future –  housing, warehousing in particular were mentioned – and the adverse impact on transport, community  infrastructure and the environment.

It’s something we have written about before but when an elector takes the time to tell us as politicians that community facilities and supporting infrastructure are not keeping pace with the increase in population and traffic, we really have to listen and do something about it. The loss of investment in the Howes Lane road scheme due to the initial cost estimate being well below what is actually required to build it was one such example, leading to fears that it will be many years (“if ever” as some residents put it) before the new road is actually built.

The loss of the playing fields gifted to the people of Bicester without a town wide referendum was also mentioned and it’s clear that the lack of facilities for young people in Bicester is a sore point for families in a town with a relatively young and growing population. People who spoke with us also wondered why ‘every bit of green space is under threat from development in a Garden Town’.

Such conversations at local level, allied to a feeling of disillusion with national politics at the moment, are difficult to respond to when the responsibility for resolving the problems raised seem so far removed from voter influence, other than the annual trip to a polling station. The encouraging aspect of these discussions with voters is that people on the whole will engage if given the opportunity, not always politely but certainly passionately, when given the opportunity. And that’s the lesson from these recent elections from the doorstep.

Almost 3 years ago, one of my first columns came to a similar conclusion. It’s time to look at what decisions are better taken locally, empower councils once more and involve the community directly and continuously.

First published as a Bicester Advertiser column by Chris Howells, Chair of Bicester Branch, Banbury and Bicester Constituency Labour Party