An investigation by a local weekly paper has exposed how few councillors respond to e-mails, despite many claiming generous online allowances from the public purse.
The North Devon Journal splashed on the report, with a double-page spread inside highlighting how more than a sixth of councillors at two local authorities failed to reply to a concerned – albeit fictional – resident.
Reporter Will Topps got the idea after one North Devon councillor told him he “didn’t do e-mail”.
A letter was then drafted from “Daisy Large”, a constituent who was concerned about some dangerous trees along her road – which was unnamed to encourage a response – and e-mailed out to 81 councillors on both North Devon and Torridge councils.
In total, 13 failed to respond completely – including nine who claim a £360 electronic access allowance, designed to help them access email and correspond with the people they represent – despite being given five weeks to do so and being sent a second e-mail.
Those who did reply were told there was no longer a problem, but thanks for replying.
As part of the coverage of the investigation, Will pulled together a lead length piece, responses from the guilty parties and the council leaders and compiled a league table of responses. He also wrote a short write–off and posed for a front page picture to illustrate the story.
“To be fair to our councillors, the majority showed they actually do a pretty good job. And even one or two who failed to reply had legitimate excuses,” he said.
North Devon Journal editor Chloe Hubbard added: “In an age where most of their electorate use digital communication we think it’s an important issue to highlight.
“Using e-mail is second nature to most people and we really feel the people elected to represent our community should get with the programme.”
The front page of the North Devon Journal following an investigation over councillors' e-mail habits
Council leaders Brian Greenslade and Barry Parsons both said they were disappointed that the e-mail had been sent, with Mr Greenslade even threatening to complain to the Press Complaints Commission over the “hoax”.
Of the councillors who didn’t respond to the e-mail, five told the paper they never received it or were having computer problems.
As he had been recovering from surgery, one councillor said he had not been checking his e-mails, while another said they had contacted the county council to pass on the concerns.
One member admitted they simply received too many e-mails and so must have missed it, while one said they hadn’t replied as there wasn’t an address. One councillor said he didn’t believe the e-mail warranted a response at all.
Only one apologised for not replying and three councillors were unavailable to comment on the story.
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I’m not sure I agree that an 83% response rate really justifies the ‘low’ description in the headline. I also wonder how many emails to the NDJ’s newsdesk inbox go unanswered, particularly if the sender fails to include basic details like the geography.
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Low? Not sure how you consider this a low response rate.
Councillors must receive an extraordinary number of emails each day; how many of these are more pressing issues than ‘dangerous trees’? How many residents complain of something being dangerous when it really isn’t, and they simply want a problem of theirs fixing?
Not really ‘exposed’ anything here.
N.B. How many of Will’s emails went unanswered while he was looking into this?
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I couldn’t agree more with ‘RT’, this seems to me a fairy high response rate from councillors, and Mr Topps has even said this himself, quote, “To be fair to our councillors, the majority showed they actually do a pretty good job. And even one or two who failed to reply had legitimate excuses.”
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A fiver says that RT, JB and NG are one and the same person. If so, it’s a shame that he or she felt the need to back-up their own comment (which, incidentally, I tend to agree with).
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The North Devon Journal does a fine job keeping an eye on local government. Hope the newsroom will not be discouraged by those disparaging its journalism.
Perhaps they would be happier if the Journal trod the all-too-common path of simply topping and tailing press releases.
I also keep an eye on developments in other parts of the country where I lived/worked in the past. The Long Eaton Chronicle (an online outlet) recently published details of allowances received by councillors who were members of both a district and a county council. One member received more than £40,000!
Local government is a scandal. Like any journalist whose career goes back to before local government re-organisation in (I think) 1974, I remember councillors carrying out their duties without any recompense.
Today, they receive staggering allowances despite the fact that the powers of local councils are now effectively much reduced. In terms of planning, councillors usually follow the guidance of an authority’s officers in rubber-stamping legislation laid down by national government. Even if they attempt to display some independence, they usually lose out on appeal. Just look at the majority of wind farm decisions.
The other major service formerly run by local authorities, housing, is now farmed out to other organisation.
The Journal, and all other regional papers, need to keep a careful eye on a bloated and inefficient sector.
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For clarity, I think the North Devon Journal approach is interesting and I’m glad to see a local newspaper holding local councillors to account. The comment with which I was agreeing was RT’s observation about this article’s headline.
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I have mixed feelings about this story but generally feel the North Devon Journal and its reporter should be praised for using some initiative and going out of their way to explore an issue. It’s true that most of these councillors responded, and it’s arguable that those who didn’t had valid excuses, but it strikes me as right the NDJ published an article anyway, and it’s refreshing to see a bit of initiative rather than just rewriting press releases.
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I would like to clarify to ‘Tsk’ I am not the same person as RT and JB, I merely thought I’d jump on the initials bandwagon. I think the investigation was an interesting idea, however, just disagree that it was a low response rate and felt the reporter even agreed this himself with his quote.
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As I say in my quote, I think the vast majority showed they do a pretty good job and the article, which I’ll link to below, reflected that.
The controversy this story caused was actually generated by North Devon Council leader Brian Greenslade, who compared the “hoax”, as he called it, to the prank phone call made by Australian radio DJs which led to the suicide of Jacintha Saldanha.
His comments got him a kicking on our letters pages and we still have letters condemning him arriving.
http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/13-North-Devon-Torridge-councillors-fail-respond/story-17574852-detail/story.html
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Happy to stand corrected. Will you let me off with the fiver, NG?
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Alright Tsk, as you asked so nicely!
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I still think the response rate is pretty healthy, and I do feel a bit sorry for the councillors who failed to answer – reading the original story, some of them are incredibly contrite.
I find the council leader’s reaction far more interesting. Trying to link a legitimate story to the hoax call that lead to the nurse’s death is outrageous.
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Phew!
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Agree with the general consensus on this – good idea for a story, and councillors’ expenses in general are something of a scandal, but the response rate was surprisingly good.
Don’t forget a lot of emails do fall foul of spam filters – especially when you stick a porn star name like ‘Daisy Large’ on the bottom of them.
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