“Front Office” – End of 2010 Update
It has been a while since I or any local blogger has published stats for individual Councillors’ use of the Council’s “Front Office” case logging system. As I have said before, some Councillors use the system more than others but its use is encouraged. The previous list I published is here.
This list is for the 8 months from May to December (incl) and therefore all Councillors are pretty much on the same basis as most take the first week of May off in order to campaign:
Conservative
Cllr Tom Steele (Kentwood) – 61
Cllr Isobel Ballsdon (Thames) – 53
Cllr Tom Stanway (Caversham) – 45
Cllr Richard Willis (Peppard) – 45
Cllr Mark Ralph (Peppard) – 32
Cllr Andrew Cumpsty (Caversham) – 27
Cllr Wazir Hussain (Park) – 26
Cllr Tim Harris (Church) – 17
Cllr Jenny Rynn (Kentwood) – 11
Cllr Dave Luckett (Caversham) – 9
Cllr Jeanette Skeats (Thames) – 8
Cllr Fred Pugh (Mapledurham) – 7
Cllr Emma Warman (Kentwood) – 7
Cllr David Stevens (Thames) – 3
Cllr Jamie Chowdhary (Peppard) - 3
Cllr Azam Janjua (Church) – 3
Cllr Mike Townend (Church) – 3
Lib Dem
Cllr Gareth Epps (Katesgrove) – 92
Cllr Daisy Benson (Redlands) – 55
Cllr Kirsten Bayes (Redlands) – 38
Cllr Glenn Goodall (Redlands) – 34
Cllr Ricky Duveen (Tilehurst) – 32
Cllr Peter Beard (Tilehurst) – 19
Cllr Chris Harris (Tilehurst) – 17
Cllr Rebecca Rye (Katesgrove) – 13
Cllr Warren Swaine (Katesgrove) – 10
Labour
Cllr Tony Page (Abbey) – 106
Cllr John Ennis (Southcote) – 78
Cllr Rachel Eden (Whitley) – 76
Cllr Bet Tickner (Abbey) – 49
Cllr John Hartley (Park) – 46
Cllr Jo Lovelock (Noroct) – 44
Cllr Mike Orton (Whitley) – 33
Cllr Deborah Edwards (Southcote) – 31
Cllr Gul Khan (Battle) – 28
Cllr Pete Ruhemann (Southcote) – 27
Cllr Paul Gittings (Minster) – 20
Cllr Marion Livingstone (Minster) – 11
Cllr Sarah Hacker (Battle) – 9
Cllr Graeme Hoskin (Norcot) – 9
Cllr Deborah Watson (Minster) – 9
Cllr Mohammed Ayub (Abbey) – 8
Cllr Chris Maskell (Battle) – 8
Cllr Jim Hanley (Whitley) – 5
Cllr Peter Jones (Norcot) – 4
Green
Cllr Rob White (Park) – 467
Again each party has a spread of activity levels based on this one measure but as I predicted Cllr Rob White (Green) has flown straight to the top of the table. Although what he actually does to submit so many enquiries one can only speculate. I still find that a high percentage of my correspondence with constituents goes nowhere near the Front Office system and is dealt with directly with the constituent or relevant Council Officer.
As I have often stated this is just one measure of Councillor activity and it should be borne in mind that some wards generate less casework than others and there are more ways of serving our constituents than just entering (sometimes trivial) cases onto the Front Office system.
Once again, enjoy these stats!
11 Comments »
Leave a Reply
About Richard…
Richard is a Conservative Councillor on Reading Borough Council representing Peppard ward since 2007, having been re-elected in May 2011. He previously represented Thames ward from 2001 to 2004. He is currently the Conservative Shadow Cabinet Member for Transport on Reading Borough Council. 
-
Recent Comments
Steve Foley on New YouGov Poll – Labour… youngleftie on New YouGov Poll – Labour… Dan on A Flag for Northern Irela… Dan on Give Northern Ireland an Offic… Dan on Give Northern Ireland an Offic…
No surprise to see Mr Ruhemann so low on the Labour list.
Ahhhh Dave Warren, don’t you get us started on Pistol Pete!!!! No doubt his glowing CV will be much talked about come May…By the way has he been confirmed as a candidate yet?
Oh dear! Daisy and Gareth don’t top the lists any more. This never was a sensible beauty contest. There are more ways to get a quick answer to a small sensible question than to put it through the Councillors Enquiries System – and always were.
He has yes probably by the 3 or 4 people who attend meetings of the Southcote Labour party.
Glowing CV? What has he ever achieved?
Daisy and Gareth don’t just take up issues they get results.
One of the problems with this system is it
doesn’t record outcomes.
In my expirience some councillors just send
an email so it makes it look like they are
doing something.
What an amazing score by Rob. As good as he is, and he is very good, this also reflects the lack of work of the other Cllrs in Park ward.
Adrian – as has been pointed out before there are many ways other than entering Front Office enquiries to represent constituents. Quantity does not necessarily equal quality! It may be that every one of Cllr White’s enquiries are substantive issues but I would be VERY surprised if that were the case!
Hello Richard, you don’t need to speculate where my case work comes from and what it is, you just need to ask me.
I have been reporting bread-and-butter issues like fly tipping, broken street lights and potholes. I have also been taking on larger things for example: housing issues, social care issues and plenty of education related cases. If a resident comes to me with any concern I am happy to help.
I pick up such a large volume of case work because I make myself accessible to the general public and am out doorknocking all year-round talking to people and listening to their concerns.
I use Front Office because councillor services have asked me to. It is also a far easier way of keeping track of a high volume of case work.
Rob – good to hear but I am sure you are not suggesting that other Cllrs (who have a fraction of the FO enquiries) do not make themselves available to the public. I am not singling you out, I have made the point about others who have unusually high Acolaid/FO numbers. I have just reported about a dozen street lights in my ward but as a single enquiry. I probably could have reported them individually which would have artificially boosted my numbers! Just one example of how FO could be used to get very high stats.
Rob “..and plenty of education relatd cases..” well this must be the legacy of the old Labour administration surely! The Group you support at almost every vote, I understand. You can’t bash the New Admin. for previous, prolific ( your word”plenty”) bad decisions/policies…
I wish i had different councillors in our ward.
It sounds like Richard and Rob are pretty
active.
I also know that the Lib Dem councillors
work really hard.
The last email i sent to Bro Ruhemann he
didn’t reply to and Bro Ennis got shirty
with me because i challenged him for failing
to make any progress at all on an issue i
raised with him last summer.
We have a major planning issue coming up but
their has been no attempt at consultation with residents about it.
Southcote ward is taken for granted by Labour.