What do you do with an MP?

In speaking to people in Stevenage it has become clear that many people are not quite sure what the difference is between an MP and a Local Councillor. As it is very likely that both will be elected on May 6th I thought I should blog something about it.
Essentially, the basic difference is that your MP deals with national issues on behalf of the people of Stevenage whilst your Local Councillors deal with local issues within Stevenage.  Let us not forget that there are also County Coucillors that deal with county-wide issues, Hertfordshire in this case, and MEP's that deal with European-wide issues such as currency, borders, trade and European law etc.
Some examples of these might be: If you wanted to speak out about a law that was being billed by Parliament, either in support or objection, or you might want to have your say about our troops in Afghanistan or the economy and taxes etc, that would be a matter for your MP. If, on the other hand you wanted to complain about the roads in Stevenage or a play area etc these would be matters for your local councillors. Then there are the County Councillors that deal with county-wide issues like our schools and highways and byways between towns. The example I gave about the roads may actually involve any of the representative groups like so: potholes in residential roads of Stevenage would be your local councillor, lighting on a stretch of "A" road in Hertfordshire would be your County Councillor, building a new Motorway from London to Stevenage would be your MP and building a road bridge across the channel might be your MEP.
There are some grey areas that confuse some.  The best example is the Lister Hospital.  This hospital is part of a National Service (NHS) even though it only serves Stevenage and the surrounding area. As such it is a concern to your MP and any such talk about merging services with QE2 Welwyn Garden City would most certainly be an MP issue. Local schools might seem to be a local issue and thus the concern of your local Councillors, however, they are all owned and managed by Herts County Council and are thus a County Concillor concern, the curriculum however, is national and thus a concern of your MP.
Confusing isnt it? But I hope I have managed to clear up some of the confusion. In any case, any of the representative groups can advise you of who you should be talking to.