You probably came here from my previous blog on Blogger. I've switched it to 20six because it provides so many more great features.

The main benefit for you the reader is that you can post your comments directly onto the site (on Blogger you had to email me). Also I can email or MMS to add entries to the blog. I'm going to try and post live during next week's council meeting. This means that the entries should be fresher and more interesting.

I also like the idea of supporting a small European company. Blogger is part of a giant American corporation (Google).

This is my second post on 20six, remember if you want to look at my earlier entries you need to visit the old blog.

It's a glamorous life being a local councillor. Tomorrow I'm off to the official opening of the Middleton tip, or to use its proper name the Household Waste Sorting Site. Actually it's a serious business. The government has set really tough new recycling targets and it is local councils that have to deliver them. That's why we need to invest millions in improving the way we collect and sort waste. I might try to post a photograph live from the opening ceremony, failing that I'll do when I get back in.

I'm all for it. I already try to do my bit by at least recycling the tons of paperwork that you get as a councillor. It really does have to be seen to be believed. What's worse is that a lot of it is pointless and could just as easily be accessed on the council intranet or sent by email. One of the problems is that some of our members are luddites and refuse to get to grips with the technology. I say refuse rather than can't because councillors are lucky position of having lots of free IT training and support available, so there really is no excuse other than laziness and ignorance. Just think of all the paper we could save.

Even when you go to meetings you don't always need to take papers. When I can I try to download documents on to my Palm 505. A big advantage of this is that I can use 'Find' to quickly hunt out important parts of the document rather than frantically flicking through.

Thanks to JoJo at 20six for plugging this blog on the front page (and my other PR Guru blog). I'm already trying to encourage some other MPs and councillors to start blogs on 20six. Just one so far, Karen Marshall who is a Labour councillor for Garforth and Swillington in Leeds.

Hopefully the article in tomorrow's LGC (Local Government Chronicle) magazine and The Guardian article will help. I think blogging could play a really important part in the way politicians communicate with people. I represent more than 16,000 voters so it would be impossible for me to meet them all, but this way at least gives people the opportunity to talk to me whenever they want.

Remember you can still see my old blog here.

Just read the piece that Matt Weaver did on the blog in the politics section of Guardian Online. It is quite a good article, although one or two misunderstandings have crept in.

The beauty of blogging is that I can correct them now with the knowledge that most readers of the article will go on to read this!

One of the points that I wanted to emphasise is that blogging will only work as a political tool if we can conquer the digital divide and get more people on-line. In Leeds the Labour council is doing an enormous amount by putting free internet access into public libraries. There are now 500 computers in 56 libraries providing more than one million hours of free internet access a year to the public. Nationally the government is also doing a lot with initiatives such as the UK Online Get Started campaign. (Someone will probably critiscise me for being too New Labour again, but it's not my fault the government is doing a good job on this!)

That's one of the reasons why I believe that blogging couod eventually become one of the prime means of communication between politicians and the electorate.

A frequent compaint of voters is that "we only see you at election time". Well with an electorate of 16,000 and the fact that being a councillor is not a full time job it would be impossible to see people even that frequently! Although being an MP is a full time job they have to deal with at least five times that number.

At one time people had time to attend public meetings and listen to 'soap-box' speeches by politicans. Delivering regular newsletters or leaflets to peoples homes is also hard. They take time to write and design. Money to print (and most local political parties of any colour are skint and rely on donations from members). And people to deliver them (the numbers of activists are dwindling and aging making frequent or regular delvery a difficult proposition).

A blog is a way of solving these problems, but only if we give people access to the net. It also has the benefit of being two way. I want to know what my constituents think. I want the brick bats (and hopefully some compliments!). I want to use the debate to stimulate my input into formulating local Labour policy.

The other point I wanted to correct was that I wasn't inspired by Tom Watson's blog. I actually came across that AFTER I had started my own. I do however find it interesting to look at Tom's to see what sort of things he thinks he can say and my attack on Mark Harris the Leeds Lib Dem leader was partially inspired by some of Tom's comments about opposition MPs. Knowing Tom's views on the Liberals I'm sure he would approve!

What with moving the blog from its old home at Blogger (where you can still access the archive) and The Guardian article I've been a little distracted from reporting on what I've been up to locally.

This week I've had a fair bit of case work from constituents wanting help to sort out local problems. This has ranged from fairly serious stuff such as a lady living on the Westwoods who wants a barrier at the top of her street to stop stolen cars (we've already put some up but not enough) and a man complaing about dog shit to a group of neighbours wanting a playground removed because of problems with vandals etc.

I'm really pushing on getting this playground issue on the Laurels in Middleton sorted out. It has been going on since about March. Basically Ben Bailey, a private housebuilder has failed to look after a playground it built on the estate. As a result the council refuses to take it over (which is what normally happens) until it is put right. I'm going to get this sorted because developers shouldn't be allowed to get away with just walking away and leaving other people to sort out their problems.

Just come back from a meeting about school dinners at Robin Hood School. I'm the vice chair of governors and the school has some issues about lots of aspects of the schools meals service provided by Crown Cuisine (part of Leeds City Council). Just 20% of children have school meals (compared to a city average of 40%).

Some of the ideas that Crown Cuisine are going to action for us are things like ditching the unpopular mash (it's not even made with real potato is it any wonder kids don't want to eat it!).

One thing that struck me is that we have a long way to go before council departments like Crown Cuisine understand that they are businesses delivering a service to customers. I don't have any ideological hang ups about wether services are delivered by the public or the private sector. I simply want was is best for the people I represent, in this case the kids at the school. I don't care if the meals are delivered by the council, a private caterer or even Father Christmas just so long as they are tasty, healthy, nutritous and value for money. And that they are good enough that kids want to buy them.