We invited our councillors for tea!

When Harrogate service manager Wayne Dunn was chatting to four people we support, he was shocked to find out that none of them could name their local council reps. After doing some research, he tracked them down and after a quick house meeting, agreed to invite them round for afternoon tea.

“I expected to get a nice but deflective letter back, telling us the usual drivel about wanting to come but being busy,” says Wayne, “So when they accepted, I was quite impressed! When they arrived, we all sat down together and shared our experiences of living in Harrogate. The guys all took turns to raise their concerns around rubbish collections and anti-social behaviour in the estate – the latter being something common to many housing estates and something which can sometimes be intimidating for people with learning disabilities. They don’t like having to walk past large groups of kids hanging around street corners.”

They basically shared their frustrations about why people can’t all live together and be happy. The councillors were both really friendly and couldn’t do enough to be accommodating. Once they’d returned to their work place, they emailed us to reiterate their enjoyment of the experience and to ask us to continue to raise any concerns in the future.

“Since then, all of the guys have become more interested in voting. Previously, we’ve supported them to go to polling stations and stuff, but it seemed like they were just going through the motions,” adds Wayne, “Now, after seeing politics in action for themselves and using the Every Vote Counts pack, they act really keen – they want to have a voice.”