Following a lot of involvement in another thread on the Sheffield Forum it is obvious from the postings that people feel let down by many of Sheffield Councillors and this comes from all parties.

As a result of this I asked a councillor the following questions :


To be honest I thought all councillors are all anwerable to the public. I have written to loads of councillors (all parties!!) and some have responded some ignored. Is there a standard code of conduct which people should follow or even any guidelines or anything. Are councillors only supposed to answer people within their constituency? Do councillors have a means of measuring how may queries they get and how many they answer etc. A little more info on how it works would be helpful, thanks.


The reply I received :


I've only been a councillor for 4 years, and in that time, I've never received any guidance on how to respond to folk who are not my consistuents.

So, if I receive an email that has been sent to more than the councillors in my own ward, this is my personal rule of thumb.....

a) I usually acknowledge it, but refer the sender to their own ward councillors for a response - and supply a link on how the sender can find who their councillors are.
b) I acknowledge it, and if it is my own constituent, respond to it.
c) If the sender cannot be identified, (no name or address given) I usually ignore it.

If I receive a letter that has been sent to more than the councillors in my own ward.....
a) I usually email the ward councillors concerned and confirm that I will not be responding to the letter - in anticipation that they will.

Occasionally, an email or letter is received that has been copied solely to the members of my political group. Usually a Cabinet Member is nominated to respond on behalf of the Group.

I would personally like to propose and see introduced a standard code of conduct which councillors should follow to deal with correspondence, at the very least guidelines which should be available to all councillors.

I would also like to propose and see introduced a means of measuring how may queries councillors get and how many they answer etc. When it comes to making a personal choice about who you want to vote for in an election some history on past performance would be most useful dont you think?

Can people please let me know their experiences with councillors. Once this has been on the forum for a while I will see what I can do and how I can raise this within the council - I presume the route is to promote this to my own ward councillors and ask them to raise in council for it to be voted on (?).

PS/ I will post my dealings next re when I have contacted councillors and of my own ward councillors only 1 out of 3 has responded to me so far !!!!

A few years ago I contacted the then Hillsborough MP Helen Jackson to have a moan about noisy fireworks being let off constantly in Stannington.

Got a big 8 pages thick response from the House of Commons about how they were changing the laws regarding the sale of fireworks to the general public and how they were only going to be sold to organised event holders etc and even then they'd have to have specific training on the safe handling of fireworks.

As promised - here are my experiences of writing to our city councillors :

Labour – 41 councillors. I have written to 41 Labour councillors and 3 have responded. Not a good percentage.

Armstrong Jenny - email sent 23/7, no response
Barker David - email sent 23/7, no response
Barker Marjorie - email sent 23/7, no response
Barton Joan - email sent 23/7, no response
Bird Jane - email sent 23/7, no response
Bragg Janet - email sent 23/7, no response
Bramall Leigh - email sent 23/7, no response
Campbell John - email sent 23/7, no response
Cromar Jean - email sent 23/7, no response
Damms Tony - email sent 23/7, no response
Dore Julie - email sent 30/7, no response
Drayton Jackie - email sent 23/7, no response
Fox Denise - email sent 23/7, no response
Fox Terry - email sent 23/7, no response
Furniss Gill - email sent 23/7, no response
Harpham Harry - email sent 23/7, no response
- invited to join me for a personal meeting
- email sent 3/8, response received 3/8
Hussain Ibrar - email sent 23/7, no response
Iqbal Mazher - email sent 23/7, no response
Jones Steve - email sent 23/7, no response
Law Alan - email sent 23/7, no response
Lawton Martin - email sent 23/7, replied same day
Lea Mary - email sent 23/7, no response
Lodge Bryan - email sent 23/7, no response
MacDonald Robert - email sent 23/7, no response
Midgley Pat - email sent 23/7, no response
Mirfin-Boukouris Helen- email sent 23/7, no response
Naylor Elizabeth - email sent 23/7, no response
Peat Mike - email sent 23/7, no response
Price Peter - email sent 23/7, no response
Pye Mike - email sent 23/7, no response
Rippon Peter - email sent 23/7, no response
Rippon Tim - email sent 23/7, no response
Robson John - I have sent several/lots of emails to John Robson and he responds extreemly quickly. He has investigated complex issues for me and has provided lots of information which has obviously taking him a lot of time to obtain. If he knows there is going to be a delay in getting information he has always responded with an ETA for me.
Rooney Mick - email sent 23/7, no response
Rosling-Josephs Chris- email sent 23/7, no response
Satur Ray - email sent 23/7, no response
Saunders Ian - email sent 23/7, no response
Wall Sam - email sent 23/7, no response
Weatherall Garry - email sent 23/7, no response
Weldon Chris - email sent 23/7, no response
Wilson Jan - email sent 30/7, no response
- email to me 31/7 inviting me to a meeting in Sept

Liberal Democrat – 39 councillors. I have writton to 39 Lib-Dem councillors and 4 responded. Slightly better than Labour. However, 3 of these are my local ward councillors and only 1 of these responded.

Anginotti, Sylvia - email sent 23/7, no response
Auckland Ian - sent email 23/7, replied same day to advise S Anginotti would respond but she hasn’t.
Ayris Steve - email sent 23/7, no response
Bagshaw Trevor - email sent 23/7, no response
Baker David - email sent 23/7, no response
- email sent 8/8
Baker Penny - email sent 23/7, no response
Bowden Vic - email sent 23/7, no response
Brelsford Alison - email sent 23/7, no response
Brelsford Martin - email sent 23/7, no response
Chadwick Kathleen - email sent 23/7, no response
Clement-Jones Simon- email sent 23/7, no response
Davis Michael - email sent 23/7, no response
Davison Roger - email sent 23/7, no response
Dunkley, Sylvia - email sent 23/7, no response
Dunworth Arthur - email sent 23/7 replied same day
France Colin - email sent 23/7, no response
Fox Pat - email sent 23/7, no response
Harston Jonathan - email sent 23/7, no response
Hesketh John - email sent 23/7, no response
Hill Keith - email sent 23/7, no response
Holmes Tony - email sent 23/7, response received 30/7
Holmes Brian - email sent 23/7, no response
Hooper Alan - email sent 23/7, no response
Knight John - email sent 23/7, no response
Leek Diane - email sent 23/7, no response
McCann Bob - email sent 23/7, no response
Mohammed Shaffaq- email sent 23/7, no response
Moore Peter - email sent 23/7, no response
Oxley Graham - email sent 23/7, no response
Priestley Vickie - email sent 23/7, no response
Reaney Denise - email sent 23/7, no response
Reynolds Michael - email sent 23/7, no response
Qadar Ali - email sent 23/7, no response
Sangar Andy - email sent 23/7, no response
Scriven Paul - sent email 23/7, response received 27/7
- sent email 27/7, no response
Sidebottom Janice - email sent 23/7, no response
Skelton Clive - email sent 23/7, no response
White Patricia - email sent 23/7, no response
Whitehouse Alan - email sent 23/7, no response

Conservative – 1 councillor. No response from the Conservatives!!

Smith Anne - email sent 23/7, no response

Green – 2 councillors. 1 response so 50% response rate for the Greens.

Creasy Jillian - email sent 23/7, response received 24/7
- email sent 27/7, response received 29/7
Little Bernard - email sent 23/7, no response

Independent – 1 councillor. No response from the Independent!!

Davis Martin - email sent 23/7, no response

Go dad! :clap: :)

A political thread brilliant!
Only joking.
To my knowledge most councillors will only really deal with stuff from their own patch for fear of treading on another councillors toes. In fairness this is the best way I think.

I think it changes if someone lives in a ward like West Ecclesfield or Arbourthorne which have councillors all from the same party (Lib dems and Labour respectively). If a constituent really does not want to deal with those party politicians then I think it is fair enough.

However if it is a real issue that effects a local area I woul contact my local councillor what ever their political colour.

I contacted Veronicca Hardstaff once and Jean Cromar on another occasion (a few years ago now) and they were both prompt and responsive.

Both were Labour councillors and even though they were nice I did not vote for them because hell would have to freeze over before I voted New Labour.

The only other time I can see that it would be relevant to contact a councillor not in your local area would be on a big issue that required a vote like the recent WW/MG merger.

For instance it is terrible that a Conservative who does not live any where near the area (nor knew anyhting other than what nice Mr Kerslake told her about the issue) got to decide the fate of a school and whole community.

Did the Conservative in question ever respond to you chavs?

Sorry was writing at same time. Your post has answered my question.

Quite frankly that is disgusting.

So the high and mighty maggie wannabe could not be bothered to acknowledge you.

She managed to fly back from a cruise to shut the school down.

(Im waiting for Redrobbo to pop in later).

You have every right to expect your Ward Councillor to reply to an inquiry.

Whether or not a Councillor from another ward is obligated to reply to is depends on the interpretation of the following item (iv) from the Council Constitution:

"2.03 Roles and Functions of all Councillors

(a) Key Roles. All Councillors will:

(i) collectively be the ultimate policy-makers and carry out a number of strategic and corporate management functions;

(ii) contribute to the good governance of the areas and actively encourage community participation and citizen involvement in decision-making;

(iii) effectively represent the interests of their ward and of individual constituents;

(iv) respond to constituents' enquiries and representations, fairly and impartially;

.........."

I would suggest that "constituents" in Item (iv) would normally be taken to mean constituents of a Councillor's ward?

Instead of writing to Little Bernard you should have written to his dad, Big Bernard. :hihi::hihi:

Seriously though, who do you think would be responsible for counting up how many queries each concillor gets and how many they've responded to? Answer: the councillor themselves. This would seem to make the system somewhat open to abuse. So if you're going to use this as some sort of measure of performance at election time, you'd have to get some sort of independent auditor to go through the figures etc. etc. which makes it an unworkable option if you ask me.

With all due respect to Redrobbo, as he's a nice bloke, where is he? His input to stick up for his fellow Councillors is probably needed in this thread.

I have nothing but praise for our local Cllr ( Keith Hill ) he works with the community and allways gives 100% :D

up the councill i say there great dont yah think:hihi:

You have every right to expect your Ward Councillor to reply to an inquiry.

Whether or not a Councillor from another ward is obligated to reply to is depends on the interpretation of the following item (iv) from the Council Constitution:

"2.03 Roles and Functions of all Councillors

(a) Key Roles. All Councillors will:

(i) collectively be the ultimate policy-makers and carry out a number of strategic and corporate management functions;

(ii) contribute to the good governance of the areas and actively encourage community participation and citizen involvement in decision-making;

(iii) effectively represent the interests of their ward and of individual constituents;

(iv) respond to constituents' enquiries and representations, fairly and impartially;

.........."

I would suggest that "constituents" in Item (iv) would normally be taken to mean constituents of a Councillor's ward?

I agree we should at least expect our own ward councillors to respond to us as individuals. I have written to my 3 and received 1 reply (Vickie Priestley, David Baker & Arther Dunworth -the last responded) so not a very good response.

I would also expect the leader/shadow leader of the council and each party's spokesperson to respond on larger city wide issues. I would also expect Councillors who are members of cabinets, boards and other bodies to respond if the query is specifc to their area. For example - I would expect Harpham to respond to issues on the WW/MG merger and I dont think this is too high an expectation.

Seriously though, who do you think would be responsible for counting up how many queries each concillor gets and how many they've responded to? Answer: the councillor themselves. This would seem to make the system somewhat open to abuse. So if you're going to use this as some sort of measure of performance at election time, you'd have to get some sort of independent auditor to go through the figures etc. etc. which makes it an unworkable option if you ask me.

Good points. One of the reason I did this post was to see what others thought. It may be that others are happy with things. I dont even know if little ol'me can ask anyone for this to be changed in future but you have to try, dont you.

I personally would like people to be accountable for their actions. If I have taken the time and trouble to write to a councillor then ignorance just infuriates me. These 84 councillors specifically voted on an issue on 25th July which will directly impact me, my family, my community and future generations. I want reassurances that they were in a position to make that vote. If they cannot justify their actions then being able to ignore the public questions is not the answer.

As a voter I would also be concerned if someone got into office and sat on their backside doing nothing til the next election.

Im also not saying I have the solution (yet). But I may well have thought of a solution soon which I can propose to council once people on SF respond. I will be taking this issue up with my local councillors to see how it can be raised with full council (that is if they respond to me!!!!:hihi:)

When I worked at the council (a few years ago), there WERE rules on replying to correspondence within x number of days, and sending an acknowledgement if the issues raised in the correspondence could not be answered immediately.

I've always had a prompt response from my local councillors - Cllr Creasey (green party) and Cllr Cromar (labour). Cllr Creasey even came out to visit, and sends regular emails asking if the issues raised are being dealt with.

So as a resident contacting local representatives, a positive experience. Perhaps I've been lucky.

But when working at the council, it was clear that some councillors were more committed than others to helping their consituents.....!

The council policy is to reply to emails within 3 or 5 working days and if they are unable to furnish a fully informed reply within that timeframe they must at least reply to this effect and indicate when they expect to reply more substantively.

Unless the situation has changed dramatically since 2001/3, I believe that councillors have fewer legal obligations placed upon them. MPs are only required to respond to their constituents.

As to whether the outcome is acceptable can be a moot point.

The council policy is to reply to emails within 3 or 5 working days and if they are unable to furnish a fully informed reply within that timeframe they must at least reply to this effect and indicate when they expect to reply more substantively.

Unless the situation has changed dramatically since 2001/3, I believe that councillors have fewer legal obligations placed upon them. MPs are only required to respond to their constituents.

As to whether the outcome is acceptable can be a moot point.

So are you an ex-council worker too andco??!!

labour dont work for us, did not help in the merger thats why we voted lib dems at least they tried

To be fair, concillors are responsible for their constituents.

I would not expect the Leader of the Council to be picking up bits and bobs from all over the place - I would expect them to be leading. Which is not the same as doing.

Having been involved with politics in the past I've known some good concillors from all sides of the divide; Masonarmsfc - just because councillors didn't help you with youyr particular cause doesn't make them bad councillors.

Many years ago I was asked to consider standing as a Councillor. I refused to do so, because I realised that I wouldn't be able to put the time in that I believed would be needed to do teh job properly.

As for accountability - basically, you can vote them out.

And the ultimate response for those of you who are REALLY unhappy is to stand yourself as an independent.

To be fair, concillors are responsible for their constituents.

I would not expect the Leader of the Council to be picking up bits and bobs from all over the place - I would expect them to be leading. Which is not the same as doing.

Having been involved with politics in the past I've known some good concillors from all sides of the divide; Masonarmsfc - just because councillors didn't help you with youyr particular cause doesn't make them bad councillors.

Many years ago I was asked to consider standing as a Councillor. I refused to do so, because I realised that I wouldn't be able to put the time in that I believed would be needed to do teh job properly.

As for accountability - basically, you can vote them out.

And the ultimate response for those of you who are REALLY unhappy is to stand yourself as an independent.

sorry m8 they havent helped the wisewood community! we still want a park in this area ! and still want our school not to be mergerd!
ive also asked about the state of the roads around hillsborough, eg no tarmac on sum! and about traffic! but its not just me asked about these things its others in the community alf meade did not help at all so in turn i think steve ayris was voted in (lib dem)
:cool:

When I worked at the council (a few years ago), there WERE rules on replying to correspondence within x number of days, and sending an acknowledgement if the issues raised in the correspondence could not be answered immediately.


The council policy is to reply to emails within 3 or 5 working days and if they are unable to furnish a fully informed reply within that timeframe they must at least reply to this effect and indicate when they expect to reply more substantively.


Are these quote's up to date?? Is there anything written down that I can quote to the councillors when I ask them why they havent responded to me.I see Nibs worked for the council a few years ago so want to check current procedure before I write again.

Can I just check another point I have thought about. If I email a councillor regarding an issue he wouldnt know my address so wouldnt know if I am in his/her ward. Is this OK then to ignore emails unless they specifically say "you are my local councillor"?

Are these quote's up to date?? Is there anything written down that I can quote to the councillors when I ask them why they havent responded to me.I see Nibs worked for the council a few years ago so want to check current procedure before I write again.

Can I just check another point I have thought about. If I email a councillor regarding an issue he wouldnt know my address so wouldnt know if I am in his/her ward. Is this OK then to ignore emails unless they specifically say "you are my local councillor"?

I think that the posts from andco and Nibs refer to the rules for Council Employees/Officers, not Councillors.

Did you not read the extract from the Constitution?

When e-mailing a Councillor, you should sign it with your name and address to ensure a response.

To summarise, you should expect a reply from your Ward Councillor.
If you do not get a reply, I would e-mail a reminder with a copy to the Leader of the relevant party.
If you have repeated problems you can always choose to invoke a complaints procedure as indicated in the Constitution and Code of Conduct.

Are these quote's up to date?? Is there anything written down that I can quote to the councillors when I ask them why they havent responded to me.I see Nibs worked for the council a few years ago so want to check current procedure before I write again.

Can I just check another point I have thought about. If I email a councillor regarding an issue he wouldnt know my address so wouldnt know if I am in his/her ward. Is this OK then to ignore emails unless they specifically say "you are my local councillor"?

It used to be written down in one of the many trillions of policies we had to adhere to:roll: - I've still got some contacts at the council so I'll see if I can get more info.

To be honest the best way to get hold of a councillor is ring them. If they are not there leave a message.
If they have not called you back in 7 days remind them. If they have not called you in 14 days send a letter and make a compaint.

If you want to get there bottoms moving copy it to the Star, group leader and the other political parties.

And the ultimate response for those of you who are REALLY unhappy is to stand yourself as an independent.

Great minds think alike!
I have mentioned this on other threads. Perhaps we should have our own SF party.

Which party were you going to stand for by the way?

Officers have standards that they are expected to adhere to, so it's disappointing that some (not all) Councillors don't - even if its just a note saying 'I'm not your man / woman / dog' :(

The Councils Customer Charter (http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/how-to-contact-us/tell-us-what-you-think/customer-charter)

Perhaps you need this link: Tell Us What You Think - Customer Feedback (http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/how-to-contact-us/tell-us-what-you-think)
If you give us feedback on Council services, we will try to provide you with a response within 7 days.

If we cannot do that we will send you an acknowledgement letter within 7 days. In all cases we will provide you with a response within 28 days.
If you still aren't happy you can contact the Local Government (http://www.lgo.org.uk/)Ombudsman who may be interested to hear how a 5* council conducts itself. You may or may not have a case worth listening to.

Before I say anything I will be up front in that I used to be a councillor - but not in Sheffield.

There aren't any rules that exist on how quickly (if ever) a councillor should respond to correspondence. However, if you did introduce some and demanded statistics on how good a councillor is, then you could have a problem. Councillors are not provided with whizzy databases like big companies or organisations that help you manage all the correspondence you get (and most councillors get a lot) and so they either rely on a paper-based system or if IT-literate they come up with their own database. People might complain about MPs expenses, but most of these expenses don't go in to their own pocket but instead pay for secretarial & casework staff, computers, databases and the like. Councillors don't get anything like that, and aren't paid to do the job full-time unless you are very senior. Most councillors have to do another full-time job and are only councillors in their spare time.

Another quick thought though is whether correspondence is the only guide to how good a councillor is. A councillor might be appalling at dealing with correspondence, but might be excellent at actually getting the casework done or in fighting people's corner in the council.

This has gone on longer than intended, but one final comment though. With many people being away on holiday at the moment, including councillors, now is probably not the best time to assess the speed of response. Even if they are now back from holidays, they will probably have a lot of emails and letters to wade through.

Agree with bits from last two posts.
All councillors have e-mail addresses these days so should be easy just to at least acknowledge a constituent.
Also agree with anders1 that a councillor cannot be purely judged on correspondance. Some are better street fighters. I think I would prefer my councillor to be out and about rather than stuck in an office in the town hall.
Also agree that the time is not brilliant to contact councillors. Did not think about that. I suppose they need a long holiday after all the abuse they have been receiving recently.
Also agree about the whole part-time councillor /having other jobs etc.
Must be difficult.
I think if they made councils more worker friendly we would have a better calibre of councillor.
I would not go as far to make them full-time, but if meetings could be held in the evenings more sensible Sheffielders could become councillors and more of the public could get involved.
I went to a public meeting a couple of years ago in Stannington. It was totally stitched up. Lib Dems on one side, Lab on the other and a few trouble causers who sounded as if they went to these meetings for a living. Have not been to another since. Total waste of time.
I know some councils down south hold more worker friendly meetings. Might stop all of our councillors being ex-trade union (Lab)or retired teachers from fulwood(Lib).

Officers have standards that they are expected to adhere to, so it's disappointing that some (not all) Councillors don't - even if its just a note saying 'I'm not your man / woman / dog' :(

The Councils Customer Charter (http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/how-to-contact-us/tell-us-what-you-think/customer-charter)

Perhaps you need this link: Tell Us What You Think - Customer Feedback (http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/how-to-contact-us/tell-us-what-you-think)
.
If you still aren't happy you can contact the Local Government (http://www.lgo.org.uk/)Ombudsman who may be interested to hear how a 5* council conducts itself. You may or may not have a case worth listening to.


Like as not I could write the reply for you. I rather suspect the LGO, staffed by former council staff particularly at senior management level, is most unlikely to be interested in hearing of how a 5* council, or indeed any council, conducts itself, eg, this link refers: www.name-n-shame.co.uk and there are quite a few more where this one came from.