The leaflets are newsletters, letting people know what we're up to in their area and inviting them to raise issues with us. They have contact details for their local Councillors and a form to send back to us if they want to discuss anything wth their Councillor. They have local stories (such as the current status of our campaign to tackle fly-tipping). It's one of the standard ways of getting a political message out there. All parties do it.
The funny thing is you can't actually win with people I've found. Sometimes I'll pop a leafletthrough someone's door and they'll come flying out and practically throw it in my face telling me to stop putting shit through their door. By the same token, I lost count of the amount of people who complained, last campaign, that they've never received any leaflets. "We only ever hear from you when you want our vote" they say, "nobody ever leaflets our street".
Most people will just chuck it in the bin with the rest of the junk mail, but enough people read them to make it worthwhile and we get lots of slips sent back with requests to discuss an issue. Quite often people will have a minor problem they're dealing with, or are worried about and it hasn't even occurred to them to talk to their local Councillor: they then get the leaflet and it sort of reminds them we're here and they get in touch. Happens quite a lot. And, as I said, we get complaints if we don;t:P In fact I get more complaints from people who feel they've been left out at vaious times, than from people who don't want a leaflet.
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