Monday 30 December 2013

How has your Brent Councillor done this year?

The end of the year is a good time to review our councillors' performance. The table below gives an overview of attendance at committees between July 8th and today. Some councillors have many more committees to attend than others and opposition councillors often complain that the present system gives them very little voice (and thus motivation to attend?) when decisions are rubber-stamped by the Labour only  Executive and committees with in-built Labour majorities.

The Green Party has policy on this:
The Green Party believes that local authorities run by single party cabinets, or by directly elected mayors, are not in the best interests of local democracy. They take decision making powers away from councils as a whole and place them in the hands of a few individuals, leading to the disenfranchisement of those councillors who are not in the ruling party and the citizens they represent. We would therefore reintroduce the committee system across local government at all levels, which provides for direct member involvement in decision making.
The Greens also have a policy of recall if 40% or more registered electors request it.

The columns below in order list: Name, Party, Number of Required Attendances, Actual Attendances, Percentage Attendance and Additional Attendances at meetings where their attendance is not required. The latter are often meetings where a councillor represents the interests of his/her ward to the committee. Barry Cheese has the best record on that count.


Lab
12
9
75%
2
Lab
2
2
100%
0
Lab
9
7
78%
1
Lab
5
3
60%
0
Lab
12
12
100%
0
LD
6
5
83%
0
Lab
5
4
80%
0
Con
10
5
50%
0
LD
3
2
67%
0
Lab
2
1
50%
0
LD
15
8
53%
1
Lab
14
13
93%
2
LD
6
6
100%
10
Lab
9
8
89%
8
Lab
9
8
89%
6
Lab
11
9
82%
2
Ex
LD
5
0
0%
0
Con
9
7
78%
0
Lab
15
13
87%
0
LD
11
11
100%
1
Lab
6
5
83%
3
Lab
16
11
69%
0
Lab
10
10
100%
1
LD
5
2
40%
0
Lab
19
16
84%
2
LD
12
11
92%
6
Lab
10
10
100%
1
Lab
15
11
73%
1
LD
12
11
92%
0
Lab
12
11
92%
0
LD
10
8
73%
0
Lab
9
5
56%
0
Lab
11
9
82%
0
Lab
10
8
80%
0
Con
6
5
83%
0
LD*
16
13
81%
0
LD
5
3
60%
0
Lab
10
10
100%
0
LD
9
7
78%
6
Lab
17
12
71%
1
LD
6
2
33%
0
Lab
12
12
100%
0
Lab
14
12
86%
1
Lab
21
20
95%
1
Lab
3
3
100%
0
Lab
9
6
67%
0
Lab
2
1
50%
0
Lab
4
4
100%
0
Lab
3
3
100%
1
Con
4
4
100%
0
LD
12
3
25%
1
Con
14
11
79%
4
Con
7
6
86%
0
Lab
11
8
73%
1
Lab
17
15
88%
1
Lab
12
9
75%
0
Con**
2
2
100%
1
Lab
18
12
67%
0
Lab
6
5
83%
0
Lab
9
7
78%
0
LD
3
1
33%
0
Mayor
2
2
100%
0
Lab
11
8
73%
1

* Defected from Labour to Liberal Democrat
** Defected from Liberal Democrats back to Conservative

Clearly committee attendance is only one measure and the amount of casework and how much of it is successful is important as well as the degree of visibility and engagement of each individual councillor with their residents.

Please note some of these non-attendances may include illness. Apologies for absence are included on the Council website - click on councillor's name.

3 comments:

William Murphy said...

Chris Leaman and Hayley Matthews have let Mapesbury down with those percentages. I suppose time off is needed to spend money for nothing http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/councillors_in_brent_paid_the_lowest_basic_allowance_in_london_1_1501249

Anonymous said...

Yes it might be the lowest allowance in London but even that is undeserved by some of these lazy useless bunch. How insulting they are to the residents of Brent!

William Murphy said...

Sami Hashmi spends most of his time telling residents to contact heads of department instead of doing it himself on behalf of a resident. This gives him the freedom not to be responsible for followups. Smart.