To deliberately take this action at a time when many are waiting for passports, perhaps in order to travel to see loved ones, or go on a well earned holiday seems cruel and unecessary.
I was particularly concerned however, because a week or so ago I was approached for help by a Suffolk resident who works in my Division about a passport application which had got caught up in the delays that are currently crippling the system.
Her mother and aunt happen to live in Waldingfield Ward. Neither of them are in the first flush of youth and both have been recently widowed. They had made an application for their first passports almost six weeks ago because they had booked to go on their first ever holiday abroad, a cruise leaving in early August. Concerned that no passports had arrived, they tried themselves to contact the passport office in order to urge matters along but with no success. These days applications for first passports are much more complex than they used to be, and an interview is necessary before one can be issued. Prospects of getting everything organised in time were looking increasingly bleak.
I suggested that my correspondent ask her own District and County Councillor, Richard Kemp, to contact Tim Yeo's office, and I offered to write an urgent letter to Teresa May on behalf of my residents. I suspect that my intervention is still waiting in the Home Office In Tray, but Sarah, Tim Yeo's fantastic assistant at the House of Commons, managed to get things moving.
I received an e mail today to say that an interview was arranged on Friday and that the Passports arrived yesterday in the nick of time. It seems that my concerns about the strike action were unfounded.
All credit to Tim Yeo's office for their speedy work. It is good sometimes to be able to hack through the thickets of bureaucracy and achieve a result.
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