News

Less than half of councillors take part in council democracy survey

15 Sep 2026 3 minute read

The General Office in Ebbw Vale – headquarters of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council. BGCBC

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Fewer than half of the councillors at a south Wales council responded to a survey intended to help improve the way the authority carries out its democratic functions.

At a Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council meeting on Wednesday, September 16, councillors will receive a report on. the “annual member evaluation” questionnaire, which they could have been completed during a two-week period in May.

The report explains that the evaluation asks councillors for their views in five areas: democratic and scrutiny support from staff, the effectiveness of the committee chairmen and chairwomen, training and development; scrutiny member review; and public involvement in scrutiny.

The report said: “The questionnaire was organised via email and was open from May 7 to May 21.

“The questionnaire was circulated to all 33 elected members and 15, 45 per cent) responded to the questionnaire.”

The report goes through the results for each area.

The report said: “overall members felt satisfied by the service provided by the democratic team.

“All 15 respondents rated four and above, one being poor and five excellent.”

Going on to the performance of committee chairmen and chairwomen, the report said: “11 respondents felt that the chairs did champion the democratic process in and around the council, three responded (with a) “no” and one “didn’t know.”

When asked if chairmen and chairwomen have good working relationships with each other and councillors: eight said yes, two said no, and four didn’t know.

On a question on where the chairmen or chairwomen meeting use the “pre-meeting” ahead of the public meeting with other councillors and lay independent members to develop “questioning strategies and key lines of enquiry,” six said “often” two said “sometimes and one “didn’t know.”

The report said that 13 councillors “clearly understood” the relationship between scrutiny and cabinet, one said “no” and another “didn’t know.

On whether scrutiny committee’s fulfilled their role in “holding the cabinet to account,” 10 councillors said that they felt they did, while three were unconvinced and replied with a three or less out of the one to five ratings

On whether the Labour cabinet “recognise and value” the contribution made by scrutiny, 11 believed that they did giving their rating as a four or five and three were more sceptical and gave their response as a three.

On a question which asked if there “were constraints to effective scrutiny” eight – which is more than half of the respondents replied with a yes.

At the council meeting councillors will be asked to consider the current arrangements and action plan and bring up anything extra which could improve the results.

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