Decision details

Question: Mr Alex Clarke

Two of the roles of a councillor outlined in the Council's Constitution are to:

(ii) represent their communities and bring their views into the Authority’s decision- making process, i.e. become the advocate of and for their communities;

(iii) deal with individual casework and act as an advocate for constituents in resolving particular concerns or grievances;

Please would the Cabinet Member explain the procedure (e.g. timescales etc.) for elected members replying to all correspondence (including letter, email and twitter) and outline the monitoring system in place to ensure that members fulfil their obligation.

Reply: County Councillor De’Ath

Elected Members in Cardiff take their representational and casework responsibilities very seriously.

All Councillors provide regular ward surgeries to meet with their constituents and use a variety of methods to respond to enquiries.

All Members have clear, up-to-date contact details published on the Council website, the Capital Times, and local libraries and community hubs. They can also by contacted by Members Services in County Hall.

Elected Members are expected to respond to correspondence in a timely fashion within 21 days of the receipt of written letters or emails. Sometimes it can take longer to provide a full response while Members make further enquiries within the Council. Members do their best to keep constituents up-to-date with the progress.

There are no formal monitoring procedures in place for this, although procedures are in place to monitor all Cabinet Member correspondence and to chase up responses if there are delays.

Residents can also contact Connect 2 Cardiff with issues or concerns. All C2C contacts are monitored to ensure compliance and swift response.

Supplementary Question: Mr Alex Clarke

It is disappointing that there are no formal procedures in place to monitor Councillor correspondence. This presents a particular problem when Members fail or refuse to answer correspondence via letter, at surgeries, or on social media.

Would the Cabinet Member agree to meet with me to discuss my concerns in more detail and therefore I can be provided with an answer to my previous unanswered correspondence?

Reply: County Councillor De’Ath

I’m certainly happy to correspond with you on this to see if you can raise some suggestions or come to a conclusion to the issues you seem to be experiencing.