Call for new rules compelling councillors to reply to residents

A Newport councillor has proposed strict time limits for elected representatives to respond to constituents’ enquiries.

Cllr Debbie Harvey told standard committee colleagues it was “appalling” to think residents’ emails to their ward councillors could go unanswered.

She raised her concerns after hearing an unnamed councillor had been reported to Wales’ public services ombudsman by a constituent for allegedly failing to respond to “correspondence and requests for engagement”.

But monitoring officer Mike Wallbank said the ombudsman had declined to investigate the matter, noting there is “generally no obligation on the councillors to correspond or engage with constituents”.

The ombudsman accepted the resident may have been “frustrated by the lack of response” but “it is up to individual councillors how they choose to engage with the public”, he added.

Cllr Harvey said she would find it “incredibly discourteous” if a member of the public contacted a councillor but didn’t receive a response.

“What the ombudsman said is that there is no duty on members to reply to correspondence,” replied Mr Wallbank. “It’s up to members how they engage with the public.

“Now, the theory of that is it’ll ultimately be judged at the ballot box – so if the member goes five years and never answers an email, the chances are they probably won’t get re-elected.”

Mr Wallbank noted the ombudsman “did observe the behaviour might be regarded as discourteous” but fell short of breaching the council’s code of conduct, even if it “might not be ideal”.

“Could there be something put into the code to conduct that tells councillors they have a five working-day policy that they do respond to their residents?” asked Cllr Harvey.

“This is a bad reflection on Newport Council as a whole, because they see us as council staff.”

Mr Wallbank said time limits were “something we could certainly look at”, either as “something we put into the code of conduct or something that should be guidance”.

But he warned the council was experiencing “an increase in vexatious complaints” from “a very small minority” of people.

“We also need to make sure that we don’t put members in an intolerable position,” he said. “It needs looking at in the right way to make sure we don’t inadvertently create difficulties for elected members.”