How not to lobby councillors
As well as running my own business I am also an elected councillor. In this morning's post I received a prime example of how not to lobby councillors.
It came from a firm of "international property advisers" claiming to do consultation on the proposed site for a mobile phone mast.
What really annoyed me was that this is the second letter they've sent me and both times they've used recorded delivery. It shows a blatant arrogance and ignorance about how councillors work. They should realise that sending a letter that requires a signature to a councillor's home address is a very stupid thing to do. Being a councillor is not meant to be a full time job, therefore it is unlikely that they will be at home during the day. Even full-time councillors are more likely to be in the civic hall than they are at home.
Luckily I was at home to receive the letter. If I hadn't been then I would have had a Royal Mail card through the door and had to travel five miles to collect it from the sorting office in the mistaken belief that it was something important. The only reason I can think of for sending it by recorded delivery is so that the consultants could prove that I had consulted. So the only benefit is to them, not the people they are meant to be consulting with. A more sensible approach, if they really needed to use recorded delivery, would have been to send it to our civic hall addresses where there would be staff to sign for it.
It is annoying that some consultants can masquerade as experts and take money from unsuspecting clients who don't realise the damage a lack of knowledge can cause.
