The reply, to an information request asking how many enquiries had been made by councillors on behalf of themselves or constituents to sort out problems, was revealing and shocking.
The period covered by the request was May 2015-April 2016
The results show that a significant proportion of Labour councillors, if the number of enquiries they make provides evidence of their service to the people in their wards, were failing to deliver.
Listed are the Councillors who reported an average of less than one problem per month together with the number of enquiries they made and their ward.
Babu Singh Bawa 2 St Pauls
Sue Crumpton 6 Old Warley
Steven Frear 6 Bristnall
Elaine Giles 8 Bristnall
Ahmadul Haque 3 Tipton Green
Tony Meehan 2 Wednesbury North
Mohammed Rouf 3 Soho
Mohinder Singh Tagger 1 West Bromwich Central.
Steve Trow 10 Old Warley,
Excluded from this tally are councillors who were ill or who retired during the period.
On these figures alone more than 10% of Sandwell councillors could be dispensed with as redundant.
Of course not all wards are the same. They don’t present with the same number of problems. It might, on this basis, be argued that the residents of Old Warley had fewer complaints for Cllrs. Sue Crumpton and Steve Trow to report. The difficulty is their fellow councillor Cllr. Trevor Crumpton, Sue’s old dad, representing the same ward, made 4 times as many enquiries as the other two put together.
When Wednesbury North ward is considered, the engagement of Cllr Tony Meehan with a derisory 2 enquiries (or one every six months) contrasts with output of his colleague Cllr. Elaine Costigan and her 331 enquiries (almost one a day) The discrepancy can not be explained away simply on the basis of Cllr. Costigan’s thirst for self promotion. When the record of the ward’s third councillor is taken into account, Meehan’s input was a mere 0.5% of all enquiries stemming from Wednesbury North.
At the age of 84, Ahmadul Haque might have some excuse for his poor performance but he is hardly delivering value to the electors of Tipton Green in return for his £10,800 allowance. As he will shortly be occupied with ceremonial duties as the next Mayor of Sandwell, little improvement can be expected.
Neither Cllr. Bawa nor Cllr. Rouf represent affluent problem free wards and while they were taking it easy their colleagues were churning out enquiries. In Soho and Victoria ward the late Darren Cooper made 143 enquiries to Rouf’'s 3. The three councillors in Bawa’s St Pauls ward only managed to raise 64 enquiries for the whole year, Bawa’s 2 interventions comprised 6% of enquiries made from that ward.
In West Bromwich Central while Cllr. Taggar stirred himself to make 1 enquiry, Cllr Dhallu did so 64 times.
All this suggests different degrees of engagement by councillors in the same ward. Some working hardly at all on behalf of residents, if the number of their enquiries reflects the support they offer to residents with problems.
Local Conservatives have, for some time, suggested that Sandwell has too many councillors and that there was a saving to council tax payers available by reducing the number by one third and having 2 councillors per ward instead of the current 3.
It has also been suggested that there are wards where there are “spare part” Labour councillors who do little save draw their allowance.
There are a number of wards where one councillor seems predominantly to deal with enquiries.
In Abbey, almost 70% of enquiries were made by Cllr. Eling a mere 12% by Cllr.Jaron. Cllr. Goult made 73% in Bristnall, while in Friar Park 78% of enquiries were made by one councillor and Cllr Melia made 67% in Great Barr (his ward colleague Cllr. Worsey made only 15 or 7%.) 68% was scored by Cllr Taylor in Greets Green and 70% by Cllr Moore in Hateley Heath. Cllr. Preece made 73% of the enquiries from Charlemont, Cllr. Elizabeth Giles, resurrected there after being de-selected from Wednesbury South, proving the party in Wednesbury right with a mere 15 enquiries or 10%. Cllr. Crompton obtained 66% in Tividale. Cllr. Costigan scored a massive 94% in Wednesbury North.
These figures invite the question what the 2 other ward councillors are doing which enables their ward colleague to achieve these high scores. The answer may be very little.
Not only is there a difference between councillors in the same ward, there is a divergence between wards. 442 enquiries emerged from Friar Park while Blackheath (56) Bristnall (53) St Pauls (64) and Old Warley (80) seemed, if measured by the number of enquiries generated, problem free wards flowing with milk and honey. Or particularly inactive Labour councillors?