SINCE I was elected to Parliament in July last year, I have tried to ensure that I am as accessible as possible to talk to constituents, local businesses and other local organisations.

From the outset, I’ve undertaken a series of regular constituency surgeries. The locations of these have followed a regular pattern: Camborne, then Redruth, then Hayle, as these are the three largest conurbations in the constituency. The fourth surgery in the sequence is one of the villages outside the three main conurbations. Although these are very useful and popular events, they can be quite restricted for three reasons.

Firstly, in order to see as many people as possible I have to limit each timeslot to just 15 minutes. As that time goes quite quickly, I encourage visitors to make notes before they come, so we can be as productive as possible and pick up all the details we need to progress the case.

Secondly, each visitor needs to sign a consent form so that I can act on their behalf and feedback on their case as it progresses, which is bureaucratic but sadly a requirement.

And thirdly, under Parliamentary security protocol, I have to be accompanied at constituency surgeries by a protection officer who sits outside the room, but it may still sometimes seem a little intimidating to some.

Because I really value the contact with constituents, I also undertake doorstep surgeries when time allows, where I knock on doors in a given street or area and ask people if they have any local issues they wish to raise. But obviously these are unannounced, and feedback is that sometimes people wish they had been more prepared when I knocked!

So, as an additional point of contact, I have begun a series of informal sessions where I will visit a particular location, normally a local pub, and people can come and raise any issues with me they’d like. I held my first two sessions in St Agnes and then Mawnan Smith last week.

There is no pre-booking required and they seemed to be quite popular, with conversations ranging from renewable energy, the voting system, international affairs, housing in Cornwall or a few people just wanting to know more about life in Westminster.

I advertise the locations of these events on my Facebook page which anyone can access, although I must admit I do prefer to talk to constituents rather than tourists!

I’m aiming to carry out another twenty of these events, which I’m calling ‘A Pint with Perran’, between now and the end of the year and because I’m usually in Westminster from Monday to Thursday evening, they are generally taking place in the early evenings of Fridays and Saturdays.

I’m also really keen that constituents who happen to be in London with a couple of spare hours, consider coming to visit Westminster.

It doesn’t matter what your political leanings, if you’d like to come and have a look around I’d be delighted to try and facilitate that.