Councillors' Casework Figures Disclosed

Council disputes information can be used to identify ‘lazy’ councillors

Meeting at Chiswick Town Hall discusses issue of Councillor casework

Figures released via a Freedom of Information request by a local resident have revealed the amount of casework taken on by local councillors since they were elected in May 2014.

The Council stressed when publishing the information that these figures do not necessarily represent the actual work carried out by councillors. This is because members may also have dealt with casework by contacting council officers outside of the system, but these cases are not recorded and therefore it cannot be concluded that a low number of cases filed means a councillor is not carrying out their role diligently.

Hounslow Council leader, Steve Curran has taken on the highest number of enquiries through the borough’s Member's Casework system since the last local elections with over a thousand cases.

A recent public meeting at Chiswick Town Hall before members of the Hounslow Cabinet, discussed the issue of whether councillors should be 'accountable' to voters and whether releasing casework figures would give an indication of how hard they work.

Councillor Ed Mayne (Customer Care, Performance), said then that that releasing statistics would not be an accurate reflection of the way councillors worked. He said there was an enquiry system for councillors, which aimed to answer questions within seven days, but many councillors went directly to officers for answers. A councillor could look as if they had a low casework entry but it might be because they went directly to officers and not because they hadn't done any work.

Other than Cllr Curran the busiest councillor by this measure in the wards around the Brentford area was Tony Louki (Labour) who took on 774 cases in Osterley and Spring Grove. The lowest amount of cases in the area were taken on by Pete de Vic Carey who represents the Conservatives in the same ward. He is standing down this time around after being a local ward councillor for close to thirty years.

Corinna Smart who currently represents Hounslow Heath is to stand Brentford ward this time around after the decision of Myra Savin to step down. She has logged 45 items of case work in the period covered. Daniish Saaed, who formerly represented Cranford ward is contesting Isleworth. She undertook 59 cases in the time under review. Salman Shaheen is the other candidate for Isleworth with Ed Mayne and Linda Green not standing this time around.

For other councillors across the borough, Mukesh Malhotra is next with 859. The lowest figure on the list was David Hughes with 2.

Recently, a petition on Hounslow Council's website, (now closed) calling on Hounslow Council to increase the accountability of its Councillors by publishing their cumulative casework figures, gained 86 signatures.

It stated, "An important part of being a Councillor is to help residents with their questions - we need to understand who is actively helping local people when it comes to elections. We would like the casework figures to be published online from the next administration on a quarterly basis so we can make an informed decision at election time."

Hounslow Council has not yet indicated whether it will do this.

April 6, 2018