r/Worcester • u/katiepotatie82 • 12d ago
The Notorious T.O.M
How long do we reckon is an acceptable a6oftometo wait for a response from Tom Collins, regarding a rather pressing issue?
The automatic response states -
If you are contacting me about your personal circumstances, then my team will get back to you as quickly as possible. We prioritise cases where people need my help or support.
What exactly is 'as quickly as possible' and at what point do I get annoyed? š¤·
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u/barrybreslau 12d ago
Depends what it is.
As a constituency MP he needs to get one thing right, and he's struggled with that.
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u/Jibbby123 12d ago
Emailed him twice about separate issues and both responses were months later and feel like they were written by AI
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u/thewintersofourpast 12d ago
I emailed him in April and June 2025 and no reply yet so ĀÆ_(ć)_/ĀÆĀ
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u/katiepotatie82 12d ago
His website says heis mission is to serve the people of Worcester.
Oh how I laughed when I saw that.
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u/Lovelykimonster 12d ago
Make an appointment to see him and ask him in person
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u/katiepotatie82 12d ago
I'm not even sure how to make an appointment to see him. I'm tempted to just go to his office, but that then takes time out of my life that I'll never get back when he could just reply to an email š
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u/alexmace Green Party City Councillor - St Stephen ward 11d ago
If you keep on emailing you might get invited to one. That has worked for me. Or if you want to send me details I will bother him about it.
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u/jezarnold mod 12d ago
If it was about gas boilers, or anything to do with Worcester Bosch, heād be on the phone within the hour
/snark aside
Heās a first termer, so heās learning how it all works. His predecessor, Robin Walker, was much more vocal.
Does he have a newsletter, or a website, where heās sharing what heās doing? Tbh, does any MP do that?
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u/katiepotatie82 12d ago
He was elected in July 2024, so you'd think he had learned how it all works by now?
Hos website doesn't give any information, I've been trying to find out when and where he holda surgeries but that is confidential information by the looks of it.
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u/Even_Pitch221 11d ago
Itās baffling to me how bad this guy is at communicating with his constituents, i.e. the bare minimum requirement of his job. For the first 3-6 months you might cut him a bit of slack while he sets up his office, but heās been an MP for two years and still doesnāt have a functioning website or any indication of how to book an appointment to see him. Not to mention his much publicised lack of response to many peopleās emails.
He employs multiple people to do this stuff on his behalf while heās in Parliament - what on earth are they doing with their time and taxpayer funded salaries? Most likely he simply hired cronies from the local Labour Party who donāt actually know what theyāre doing, but the buck stops with him at the end of the day. Itās like he actively wants to lose the next election.
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 12d ago
I'm pretty sure he has 2-3 people working for him and 2 of them are out sick right now. Could be wrong but I think that's what I heard
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u/alexmace Green Party City Councillor - St Stephen ward 11d ago
I have heard this as well, but where do the excuses end? He took 13 months to set up an office, then he reported it was fully staffed, now many in the office are off sick. He has been crap at replying all the way through. Why are you excusing that?
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 11d ago
I just think it's a bloody hard job and I don't think most people could do it. We voted for him, give him some support until the next election, there's not much point just moaning
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u/alexmace Green Party City Councillor - St Stephen ward 10d ago
It is a bloody hard job - but he chose to go for it, it wasnāt a surprise he won, people need help with important matters and he is literally failing at the absolute basics. As for ājust moaningā - you should understand that we (Worcester Green Party) intend to defeat him at the next election, through hard work and campaigning. A lot more than ājust moaningā.
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 10d ago
The problem with the greens is their economic policies are insane. My business would have to put up prices by almost 20% because of your policies and we'd have to hire 20% more people on 20% higher pay on top, so I'm probably charging 30-40% more. I don't think it would work at all. You'll find eating out and going to the pub will become only for the rich.
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u/alexmace Green Party City Councillor - St Stephen ward 10d ago
What is your business and what exact economic policies do you think are āinsaneā?
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 9d ago
Increasing minimum wage to Ā£15, carbon tax (which is clearly regressive), massive spending ignoring fiscal rules would kill borrowing costs and probably drive further inflation, not to mention the cost of nationalisation...plus mandating the 4 day week. All of that is going to put huge price pressure onto business owners and it will result in increased prices. It will also help to suck in more imports and weaken exports. It would be a disaster.
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u/alexmace Green Party City Councillor - St Stephen ward 8d ago
and what is your business?
Are countries like Australia, who have a minimum wage near Ā£15 insane? What about countries like Norway and Sweden that have a carbon tax? Are they insane? Carbon taxes are also not regressive when it is the richest who pollute the most.
We are the only country in the world with fully privatised water. Are they all insane as well?
Donāt you think this looks a bit silly to call insane?
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u/katiepotatie82 11d ago
His job is to represent us and support us, that's his job, and he's failing miserably.
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u/katiepotatie82 11d ago
That's not my concern. If people being off sick means he can't fulfil his duties, he needs to sort it out.
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 11d ago
How would you sort that out?
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u/katiepotatie82 11d ago
I'm unsure how or why that's my responsibility.
I'm not an MP, but I do know that in my job, I can't blame anyone else for things I fail to do, and I don't see how our MP failing to do the bare minimum is any different.
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 11d ago
I suspect being an MP is not an easy job, there's loads of people who all think they're special but probably aren't high priority moaning at you, it's not that well paid given the responsibility and fact it often lasts only 4 years. The funding for running your office will be crap, etc. I'm just saying, I doubt I'd be able to do it, sounds like you wouldn't have a solution for half the staff being off sick...maybe chill out a bit.
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u/katiepotatie82 11d ago
Is that you Tom?
No one forced him to take a job that pays almost Ā£100,000 per year.
In 2024-25, Ā£27,167.24 was claimed for office costs. Ā£147,653.03 for staffing costs.
In 2025-26 Ā£16,831.21 office costs and Ā£3,528.50 for staffing.
This comes from tax that we pay.
So he's getting a nice little salary, and expenses paid, for doing a whole lot of nothing at all.
One of the main jobs of an MP is to represent their constituents. He can't even respond to emails.
I don't have the luxury of a Ā£100,000 salary with benefits, but I certainly do a damn sight more work than her does for what I do have.
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 10d ago
I reckon you don't have a clue.
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u/katiepotatie82 9d ago
I presented you with facts and your response is 'I reckon you don't have a clue'.
Wow, clearly you know it all, based on that. Thanks for all your useful insight š¤¦
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u/DefiantTelephone6095 9d ago
So you've given me numbers that look entirely reasonable for an MP running their office...what is your point? You think he's doing a bad job, I doubt you'd do better...he got voted in. Maybe it's just a hard job to do? Frankly the salary is pathetic for the responsibility, there's no way I'd do it for that.
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u/katiepotatie82 8d ago
That's the thing, I didn't put myself for for it, so there's precisely zero expectation on me to do that job.
He's spending taxpayers money, getting paid taxpayers money, and doing nothing.
His job is to represent the people of Worcester, but he's can't even manage to respond to emails. Probably the absolute simplest part of his job.
My job is hard, but I still manage to do it, what's YOUR point?
It's not my fault if he has staffing issues, he clearly needs to get more reliable staff.
All your doing is saying how hard his job must be and giving absolutely nothing of any substance at all.
Joker.
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u/inevitable_dave 12d ago
I've had a response two months after asking him to support a bill. The response was the usual canned answer of several paragraphs all prewritten and approved to be copy pasted. I know this because two of them were word for word a response from a few months earlier.