A LONGSERVING Halesowen councillor who was re-elected last week has vowed to visit all 5,500 homes in her ward.

Conservative councillor Karen Shakespeare, who has been in office for the last 11 years, said she planned the mammoth task of doorstepping all the properties in the ward to hear residents’ concerns.

Cllr Shakespeare held on to her Halesowen North seat with 2,078 votes in last week’s local elections despite a close challenge from Labour’s Hilary Bills who polled 1,906 votes.

She came up with the idea of doorstepping residents and will be joined on outings around the ward by her fellow councillors Jeff Hill and Lesley Faulkner.

Cllr Shakespeare said: “People sometimes have issues they don’t always bring to us because they don’t want to come to a surgery or because they think it might be too trivial to contact us about.

“So by going door to door if anyone has anything they want to raise we will be there asking if they need our help.”

The epic task may take cllr Shakespeare a while as it is estimated there are around 5,500 homes in Halesowen North. She said: “We have 52 weeks and we will try to do a door-stepping session every week. Some roads are longer than others!

“We want to be inclusive. We are there to represent everyone.”