The Stats
Well, there has been another freedom of information request for councillor cases processed via the Councils internal system, for the period July-October 2009.
Whoever keeps doing this - well done! I think we should be regularly held to account, and it makes for better and more open democracy. I’m sure this will get the usual complaints from the Tories, all I can say is that I report issues – they get resolved – and I’m happy the statistics are accurate for me.
We have a new system in place which is supposed to make it easier to track cases which don’t have a conclusion. For the most part I have been impressed with the new system.
Any way onto the statporn:
Top 11:
- Tony Page (LAB, Deputy Leader) - ABBEY - 69
- Daisy Benson (Lib Dem) - REDLANDS - 50
- Gareth Epps (Lib Dem) - KATESGROVE - 47
- Mike Orton (LAB) - WHITLEY - 35
- Glenn Goodall (Lib Dem) - REDLANDS - 32
- Tony Jones (IND) - BATTLE - 28
- DUVEEN, Ricky (Lib Dem) - TILEHURST - 24
- Tom Steel (CON) - KENTWOOD - 22
- Kirsten Bayes (Lib Dem) - REDLANDS - 21
- Mark Ralph (CON) - PEPPARD - 20
- Warren Swaine (Lib Dem) - KATESGROVE - 19
In the top 10: 5 Lib Dems, 2 Cons, 2 Lab and 1 Ind
Top 3 wards:
Redlands (LibDem) 103
Abbey (LAB) 81
Katesgrove (LibDem) 66*
*Labour councillor in Katesgrove recorded 0 (yes Zero) pieces of casework through FrontOffice
Group Results:
Labour - 209 (19 members - 11 per councillor)
Lib Dem - 182 (8 members - 23 per councillor)
CONservatives - 169 (18 members - 9 per councillor)
Tony Jones (Battle IND) recorded 28 cases - more than the two Labour councillors in his ward combined!
Performance:
What we would be getting if we had performance related pay (4 month allowance = £2740, thus £4.65 per case reported)
Top 11:
1 - Tony Page (LAB, Deputy Leader) - ABBEY 321.99
2 - Daisy Benson (Lib Dem) - REDLANDS 232.99
3 - Gareth Epps (Lib Dem) - KATESGROVE 219.01
4 - Mike Orton (LAB) - WHITLEY 163.10
5 - Glenn Goodall (Lib Dem) - REDLANDS 149.12
6 - Tony Jones (IND) - BATTLE 130.48
7 - DUVEEN, Ricky (Lib Dem) - TILEHURST 111.84
8 - Tom Steel (CON) - KENTWOOD 102.52
9 - Kirsten Bayes (Lib Dem) - REDLANDS 97.86
10 - Mark Ralph (CON) - PEPPARD 93.20
11 - Warren Swaine (Lib Dem) - KATESGROVE 88.54
In the top 10: 5 Lib Dems, 3 Cons, 2 Lab and 1 Ind
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Bottom 10 (Names removed out of respect and fairness):
37 - Conservative - KENTWOOD 13.98
38 - Conservative - MINSTER 9.32
39 - Labour - MINSTER 9.32
40 - Conservative - THAMES 4.66
41 - Labour - PARK 0.00
42 - Conservative - CHURCH 0.00
43 - Labour - PARK 0.00
44 - Conservative - MAPLEDURHAM 0.00
45 - Conservative - THAMES 0.00
46 - Labour - KATESGROVE 0.00
In the bottom 10: 6 Cons and 4 Lab
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Also see this great post by Tony Jones, it isn’t just the Lib Dems who feel councillors should be accountable.
6 Comments
have your say
I think I can guess who the bottomn five are!
There you go again, you just can’t help yourself can you? Tories, Tories Tories, that’s all you can think about. Maybe you’re thinking of joining them? Shall I have a word with them and see if they’ll have you?
Can’t you write anything without slagging the opposition? Wally!
Complaint from a Tory - tick!
May be you should stop reading my blog if it makes you this paranoid.
This is hardly “slagging off the opposition” I’m simply presenting some statistics which are freely available to all.
I clearly name 2 CONservatives and 2 Labour councillors who are kicking butt. It just so happens that the majority of the Lib Dem group are as effective. I could have really gone to town on this - but decided not too.
All I’ve done here is present some numbers with very little commentary. I leave it to my readers to draw their own opinions.
I don’t even ‘name-and-shame’ those councillors who haven’t bothered to do any casework for the last 4 months. I probably should have removed the ward names for the bottom 10, as one makes it very obvious who it is… and I quite respect that councillor.
Still hiding behind a childish pseudonym - and you’re calling me a wally… hmmm.
Mr Goodall, I was making reference to:
“I’m sure this will get the usual complaints from the Tories”
was this really necassary?
By thr way, I’ve done some digging around with some pals who work at the Council and they tell me that the vast majority of the casework put in by the Councillors at the top of your list is extremely trivial and NOT of any real relevance. I was given a couple of examples where there is really no need to waste the Councils time so it appears your “case work” serves no benefit to the people of Reading but simply tries to make out that you lot are working “hard” when in case the opposite is true. We have asked for a number of your colleagues “case works” to be released under the freedom of information act and shortly you”ll see how you and your mates have simply been wasting Council time!
Tories complain about these statistics every time, that’s just how it is and not exactly slagging them off - as you suggested. As it’s my blog I’ll write whatever I like. If it offends you so much then stop reading!
Since there are Labour and Conservative councillors in the top 10, I’m sure they will be very happy to know you think what they do is completely worthless. (Actually, I’d be really interested to learn what Tony Page does - not in a malicious way, I’m just interested).
I kind of lost the will to do weekly updates (mostly because I thought people weren’t very interested), but may be I should revive them so as you don’t need an FOI - and to shut you up! I suggest you look at my past weekly updates and let me know which of these are of not of relevance. This is hardly secret!
I don’t believe that anything I do for my residents is trivial - be it getting a pot holes fixed, street lamps fixed, bins emptied, parking plans/safety looked at, streets cleaned, leaves removed form the streets or even having some graffiti removed… etc.
I also don’t believe for a minute Officers think this isn’t worth while either (it’s also their job) - So I think you should stop dragging them to your level!
This may seem trivial to you - but it is what people in my ward care about… therefore its my job to try and sort it out!
Unless you reveal your real name - all your subsequent replies will be removed.
It was my Freedom of Information Request. I have also asked if the council will publish this information itself without me having to submit a request every few months, but was told no. Thanks for the number crunching.
Best wishes
Rob White
Reading Green party