We want to be straight with you about something.

We want to be straight with you about something.

The doorstep conversations and the polling both tell us the same thing: most people in Edgeley and Cheadle Heath think what the ECA does is worthwhile. That's genuinely good to hear, and we don't say it lightly.

But there's a gap between that goodwill and what's actually happening, and we think it's worth naming rather than quietly living with.

Fewer than 2% of the residents who back us have become members, even though membership is what funds the local groups and causes we support. When we asked for suggestions on how to spend the community fund last month, three people replied. Our public meetings pull in a regular group of people, month after month, people we're enormously grateful for, but it isn't a ward. And when we set up Alley Squad because residents kept asking us to help clear their alleys, we couldn't get a single street to muster the handful of volunteers needed to do it.

We're not writing this to guilt anyone. We're writing it because we've been doing the things you'd expect an organisation like ours to do: meetings, newsletters, a fairly loud presence on social media, turning up in person around the ward, and none of it is closing the gap between support and participation.

So we want to ask you directly, because we genuinely don't know the answer. Is it that people aren't willing to engage, full stop? Or is it that we're offering the wrong ways in?

If it's the second one, tell us what would actually work. Would you rather do something practical for twenty minutes than sit in a meeting for an hour? Would a message on WhatsApp get more out of you than a newsletter? Is Saturday morning easier than a Tuesday evening? Would you help if a neighbour asked you directly rather than an organisation asking the whole street?

We'd rather build around how you actually want to take part than keep doing more of what clearly isn't landing. Tell us what that looks like. Because without your participation, we are li