My family originally hails from Pakistan, although having been brought up in Darnall and Tinsley I consider myself to be a Sheffielder through and through.

For the past year my job at the council has been to work with the Cabinet Member for Safer Neighbourhoods.

This has meant that I've spent a lot of my time out and about in neighbourhoods all over Sheffield talking to people about how the council and other agencies like the police and Sheffield Homes can make our local communities safer.

As Labour no longer has control in the Town Hall, in May this year I was given a new job in the council, as Labour Spokesperson for Community Action.

I see my new job as helping local people to have their voices heard about the issues that affect them.

The new Lib Dem Council tells us it wants to take its services closer to local communities. I support this and I want Labour to help with this as much as possible.

I think I can say with confidence that all Sheffield councillors want local people to have control over their own lives and have their say about the important issues that affect them.

Is the council doing something in your area that you don't like?

If so, how would you let the council know?

For many years the council has welcomed members of the public to full council meetings (meetings where all 84 Sheffield councillors are present to make decisions on what the council does) to tell councillors about their concerns.

However I know many people may feel too daunted to do this, and who could blame them?

After all, standing up and making a speech in front of nearly 100 people is a pretty scary thing to do!

At the moment there are 12 Area Panels spread across the city.

Area Panels are public meetings held in local neighbourhoods to discuss local issues.

These meetings were set up to increase people's opportunity to have their say about their area and wherever you live in the city there is an Area Panel that meets to talk about the issues that affect your neighbourhood.

I believe it's important that Area Panel meetings exist, and yet the vast majority of people in Sheffield do not take part in their local meetings.

There may be many reasons why – many people may be too busy to get to these meetings, others may not feel that their views will count if they do bother to go and maybe many people don't even know that these meetings exist.

The new Lib Dem council has promised to directly include the views of Sheffield people in the decisions it makes.

We all agree with the aim – but finding a way to achieve this is the hard bit.

And the fact that some people feel strongly about something doesn't always mean that they will get their own way – there may well be other people in the city who feel very differently about the same issue, or there may be practical reasons why something that seems like a good idea is not possible.

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