After a fairly pointless Council meeting it was nice to get back home late in the evening and to discover that we were mentioned favourably yesterday in a press release by Reading Green Party of all people (who currently have no councillors in Reading) about the work rate of councillors from different political parties in Reading.
I'm not quite sure what the point of this press release was as despite trying year after year the Greens have failed to elect one single councillor anywhere in the Town.
Anyway, in case you didn't see it, the press release by Green Party activist Rob White says:
"Green Party campaigner Rob White has obtained information from the council on how many items of work each councillor has put through the system used to ask officers questions and is asking that the council publish this information on a regular basis.
The system is called Acolaid. Items of work or Acolaids are usually generated by a councillor following on from a member of the public asking a question or requesting that some work be done. All councillors use the Acolaid system because it guarantees them a quick response.
See the table at the end for the Acolaid tally for each councillor."
The only thing I would query about this PR is the notion that using the Acolaid system guarantees a quick response...as any councillor will tell you, this is simply not the case - responses from RBC can take weeks!
You may remember that before the local elections in May, official Council statistics showed that the Lib Dems were amongst the hardest working councillors in Reading - showing that the efforts of Cllr Gareth Epps (Katesgrove) and I were more than the Conservative Group of councillors combined!
I can reveal that since May 2008, the Lib Dem team in Redlands Lib Dem team has reported 240 issues to Reading Borough Council on behalf of constituents - you can see from the table below how this compares to other wards:
| REDLANDS | 240 |
| ABBEY | 127 |
| KATESGROVE | 116 |
| PEPPARD | 102 |
| KENTWOOD | 93 |
| WHITLEY | 92 |
| SOUTHCOTE | 73 |
| NORCOT | 64 |
| CAVERSHAM | 63 |
| THAMES | 50 |
| MINSTER | 47 |
| BATTLE | 43 |
| TILEHURST | 37 |
| CHURCH | 21 |
| PARK | 11 |
| MAPLEDURHAM | 5 |
I'm sorry to blow my own trumpet, but for a second year running, I am officially the hardest working councillor in Reading, with 133 issues reported since May. I am however ably supported by my excellent colleagues Kirsten Bayes and Glenn Goodall who are certainly no slouches compared to some members of the Council.
The point we are making is that the council should publish this data on councillor activity and so be more transparent.
For your readers information we increased our vote in Park ward this year by about 300 votes and were just 20 short of getting our first councillor.
bw Rob White
Posted by: Rob White | December 05, 2008 at 06:47 PM