September 8, 2010 9.17 am This story is over 161 months old

City MP ‘frustrated’ with local bureaucracy

Open Sesame: The Lincoln MP is frustrated with local bureaucracy, but says he found a way to get things going.

Lincoln’s Conservative MP Karl McCartney says that after his first 100 days in office, local bureaucracy is his “biggest frustration”.

McCartney wrote a blog post on the ConservativeHome website reviewing the hundreds of complaints from Lincoln residents he received since May.

The city MP says the most common issues he heard of from Lincoln residents were housing, anti-social behaviour, relationships, traffic, Network Rail, and employment.

He says his “disappointment and frustration” is that residents feel he is their last resort to resolve issues with City of Lincoln Council and Lincolnshire County Council.

“The disappointment and frustration I have is that it’s not just because my constituents haven’t received the service they should have done, it’s because they have already contacted these organisations, to complain or seek help.”

“It is often the case that they just don’t get anywhere and are left banging their heads against the bureaucratic brick wall,” McCartney wrote.

“They have become lost in a Kafkaesque maze of red tape and unhelpfulness — lovely ‘bureaucracy’, often symbolised by ‘jobsworthyness’.”

Open Sesame

McCartney says he sent letters to the city and county councils following up on residents’ problems, and they got solved only because they came in a yellow House of Commons envelope.

“The House of Commons’ envelope is the political equivalent of Ali Baba’s ‘Open Sesame’,” says the Lincoln MP. “It really shouldn’t come to this.”

“There just seems to be a disconnection between those paying their taxes or needing help, and many parts of the public sector.

“I wouldn’t blame entirely those on the front line – part of the problem will be down to poor management and possibly political correctness.”