A Voss and Pike Casefile: The Early Days
Section 10: The Problem Register
At the desk outside Keast's office sat a face you hadn't expected: Dr Corinne Abara, in a council lanyard.
"Policy Insight Officer," she said. "Yes. I know." She handed over the register without being asked, with the air of a woman returning something she'd borrowed and was ashamed of. SALTMARSH TOGETHER: PRIORITY PROBLEM REGISTER. Groups ranked by "friction" and complaint volume: loitering youth (Dockside), unlicensed street traders, multiple-occupancy housing, rough sleepers, "isolated older residents (care-cost risk)", "accessibility requests (cost to be managed)".
"Who decides what's a problem?" you asked.
"Whoever complains," said Abara, "and whoever counts the complaints. I used to say research ethics were a metanarrative. It turns out the metanarrative has a spreadsheet." She looked at her hands. "The register is full of people. There isn't one lamp in it."
The Strategy's priority register ranks groups of people by "friction" and complaint volume - defining social problems by who complains and who counts - while the council's own planning and lighting decisions never appear on it as problems at all.