I’ve been thinking lately whether the residents of Swansea are getting value for money from their councillors. They are directly elected by us to serve the communities in which they represent and as such they are directly accountable to their electors. One of their most important roles is in meetings at the council where they can influence decisions not just in their local communities but in the city as a whole. Full council meetings are held at least once a month. Each councillor could also be part of a specific committee or should at least be available to vote on important community matters such as planning and licensing.
We are fortunate in that Swansea Council provides up to date statistics on councillor attendance at meetings. As the end of the council year is approaching I took the opportunity to pull up those statistics to see which councillors are taking time to attend and those that are neglecting their duties.
The following tables show attendance at the full council meeting, from May 2009 to date. This is the most important meeting as it is the one in which every Councillor should be expected to attend.
The results have been colour coded to highlight Good attendance (over 80%), Average attendance (over 67%) with anything less being Poor attendance.
This first table shows attendance by individual Councillor:
This second table shows attendance by Political Group:
This third table shows attendance by Ward:
The most surprising results are for Peter Black and the Conservative Group Leader Rene Kinzett who both only managed 10 out of the 15 full council meetings. This does raise the question of whether Peter Black can effectively manage 2 roles, with him also being an AM. Rene Kinzett is currently campaigning as the Swansea West Parliamentary Candidate
Other disappointments are John Hague, Cabinet member for Environment, who could only attend 9 of the meetings. Then we have Rob Speht who has the worst attendance. Mr Speht is the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Swansea East - he could only be bothered to turn up for 6 of those meetings ....... which begs the question how can he possibly represent half the city in Westminster when he can’t even represent his own ward? However, Mr Speht is not alone in having the worst attendance as he shares this with Susan Waller Thomas.
I’m planning to publish these statistics every month, as I feel a collated view of it does highlight who is doing an effective job as councillor.
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I am not as convinced as your good self that committee attendance remains an important part of a councillor’s role these days.
ReplyDeleteThere are very few councillors on decision making bodies and the regulatory committees, planning & licensing, have no real discretionary powers. Since 2003, local government in Wales has operated on an executive model whereby 10 people make ‘decisions’ and the remaining 62 (in Swansea’s case) watch them do it and possibly get to ask questions six months later.
Constitutionally, all council powers are vested in the Council Leader who delegate the majority of them to chief officers – and not elected members. So what purpose does it serve to sit in a talking shop which has no influence over matters when you are elected to represent the views of your community? No wonder Rene Kinzett thinks that his cat could do the job just as well.
The former committee-based system, which Westminster deemed to be ‘inefficient’ provided councillors with an opportunity to learn about statutory roles, service provision, funding practices, internal structures and generally how local government worked. They used that knowledge in combination with on-the-ground experience of problems in their wards to press for policies which meant something in the communities they represented.
Today, I doubt that one in five councillors could tell you the requirements for adopting a sewer or an unmade road or have any say over local bus subsidy arrangements. Most are spoon-fed by support officers and scrutiny co-ordinators whilst the cabinet are too scared of their own shadows to actually consider something different to what the Corporate Management Team tell them to do.
For me, the only surprising thing about these attendance figures is that they are so high.
A good and well argued point, Rebekah.
ReplyDeleteThe figures are based purely on attendance at the full council meeting (15 to date this council year), rather than meetings and committees that are specifically for planning, licensing etc.
I chose the full council meeting as the source of the stats as I felt this was the most important meeting that all should be expected to attend. Whilst I do consider that councillors may do a lot of work that is not directly accountable within their communities, I do think that attendance at the full council meeting is the main forum in which councillors have the opportunity to question the leading coalition on their policies and decisions.
I do agree that I too was initially suprised at the number of councillors that did have good attendance, but it was some of the key figures that are regularly in the spotlight in Swansea with which I was disappointed by their attendance; namely Mr Black, Mr Kinzett and Mr Speht. All of whom are current or campaigining for larger political roles in the principality and nationally.
Great to see some accountability in swansea, Great website, i will be a frequant visitor! And poor show Rob Speht!
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