New councillor will draw on experience as city MP

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.

- ALISON STEPHENSON

The Labour councillor, who won a 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 an 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.

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.