Thread by @Andrewwood17

Last year Tower Hamlets Councillors cost you taxpayers £904,552
Are we value for money?
Which Cllr’s work hard on your behalf?
Some analysis
The following is not a 100% accurate record but is indicative of who works & who does not
But you also need to consider other factors
1/

1st how many Members Enquiries have they submitted in the last 3 years?
Marc Francis 1,658 & Rabina Khan 1,492 top the list by some margin
Two Deputy Mayors come 2nd Sirajul Islam 895, Rachel Blake 653 (some lucky people in Bow East)
I am 8th out of 45 on 402
Top 15 below
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Bottom 15 - reminder these are over 3 years i.e. 6 in 3 years!
Some may claim they do by email to officers but we are not supposed to do that except in an emergency & how do they know which officers deal with issues?
Note Harun Miah & Rajib Ahmed elected Feb 2019
3/

There are other ways to raise issues then members enquiries
I have had to submit FOI to the Council, GLA & MHCLG in the last 3 years
I also use the excellent LYN app as well to report local issues
Ask your Councillor for their map from LYN of issues they raised as comparison
4/

Another record of work could be number of emails sent from your main Councillor account
For me 13,701 sent emails between May 2014 and July 2021
But I manage other work emails, my gov uk email says I sent 1,078 from that account (but I had to delete some due to memory issues)
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2. Another way of checking workload is number of meetings attended in last 3+ years
I top list at 179, @going4golds 2nd on 135
As opposition we have to attend a lot of meetings
So I added 2nd column for voluntary attendance where not required
But I know some missing as online
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Meetings can be more time consuming then ME’s (depending on complexity) in terms of preparation in advance (reading, last Cabinet agenda pack was 238 pages long) & attendance (2-4 hours) but some cases can take longer so hard to compare workload between the two
But obvious in
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meetings that some Cllrs have not read anything in advance
There are other internal meetings as well not reported
But this is where there is a major flaw - where do we report cabinet member workload & performance - they get a lot of extra £, some I know are worth it, others?
8/

They are answerable to the Mayor so he determines their value
But how can we have confidence that they are value for money?
So I did this analysis
Money paid over 3 years in allowances + SRA / number of ME’s
Average cost of a Cllr is £205 per ME over 3 years
Marc Francis £24!
9/

Some cost way more then that £8,344 per ME!
Note 2 Cllrs took maternity leave during this period (Rachel Blake & Mufeedah Bustin) but both still rank top 1/2 for performance in period
I am not saying this is perfect measure of value for money but interesting & we need better
10/

You can access by workings & backup here
cllrandrewwood.com/news/councillo…
Can check meeting attendance here
democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgUserAttendan…
Can check £ paid to Councillors here
towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/council_a…
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From a selfish point of view 45 Cllr’s is relatively small no. compared to most other Boroughs (Newham has 60, Liverpool 90!)
We are very dependent on a small number of hard working Cllrs (Labour, Lib-Dem & Conservative) to read & prepare & attend meetings
& to help residents
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We barely have enough good Cllr’s to cover key Committees & noticeable Labour have had to move good Cllr’s around to cover key C’tees like Audit & Pensions as not strong enough
So next May we have to vote in better Cllr’s who will do work
Parties & voters have to do this
13/

Lastly another measure of work is public engagement
My Twitter followers 1,943
Active members of Facebook group I run 19,272 in last month, 14,780 on one day
Plus a bunch of other stuff
Google your “Councillors name Tower Hamlets” to see what they have done in public
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