One question you may be asking yourselves before voting in the local elections is, “How well did my councillor do?”
There’s no single way to measure that, but I’m going to look at some of the key numbers today.
I haven’t included Phil White (formerly Lab, Caerau) for obvious reasons and also David Owen (formerly Ind, Nanymoel) following his disqualification.
Similarly, Mary Hughes (Ind, Nantymoel) and Christopher Davies (Ind, Caerau) haven’t been included as they’ve only been councillors for a year or less.
Cabinet members will be counted separately from backbenchers and the opposition as Cabinet positions are full-time and can’t be compared like-for-like with the rest of the council.
Despite submitting a Freedom of Information request back in March, Bridgend Council has so far failed to respond (a response was due by 5th April under the law). I’m going to assume it’s an innocent oversight and not deliberate withholding of information (information that could prove embarrassing in one or two cases).
A referral is a formal request for action from a councillor – whether on their behalf or on behalf of constituents – to a council department.
Since posting this, I’ve been provided with the member referral figures from a trusted source.
It’s probably to nobody’s surprise that the Council Leader is top of the pile. Cabinet Members by virtue of their position are going to have more referral work.
There may be different reasons why referral figures are lower for some councillors than others.
Some may represent an area that’s relatively well-off and might not generate as much casework as a more deprived area, or may have a small population. Some councillors will be more proactive in seeking casework, while others would be more than happy to wait for casework to come to them. Some may submit mutliple requests in a single referral, others might submit a referral for every single bit of casework no matter how small.
This list also proves that attendance doesn’t by itself suggest “laziness” or that someone is working hard.
Gary Thomas is the second highest-earning backbench councillor by virtue of chairing the Planning Committee, but is second bottom for referrals.
Aniel Pucella was towards the top of the list for attendance but made just 11 referrals in five years. Jeff Tildesley was at the bottom of the attendance figures – barely attending more than half of schedule meetings – but submitted more referrals than any of the Conservative’s three Brackla councillors.
In fact, 29 backbench and opposition councillors submitted more referrals individually than the three Brackla Conservative councillors combined. TWENTY NINE.
