I've a bee in my bonnet (or rather flat cap) about the information provided on the NPT Council website. Or more accurately - the information not provided on it.

Next year the various Political Parties and Independent candidates will be asking for our votes in the Local Government elections. They'll be knocking on doors (well, not mine probably), putting leaflets about and generally promising you the earth. That's all fair enough, it's part of the pitch we expect. But one thing I want to know is how well existing councillors have performed for us. This is best gauged from local feedback, talking to our neighbours etc.  Some councillors have more of a presence in their patch than others.

But one thing I judge councillors on as well is their attendance at committees they are appointed to. I don't rate this the most important role they play, not by a long shot, but it's a yardstick I would use if the information was available. Such statistics, however, need to be tempered with the reality that sometimes there may be genuinely good reasons why a councillor cannot make these meetings. However I'm surprised, and extremely disappointed, that NPT COUNCIL DO NOT PROVIDE THIS INFORMATION AS A MATTER OF COURSE ON THEIR WEBSITE. Now if I lived in Swansea I can go on their website and easily in one click get a record of any councillor's attendances, plus their reasons for absence from a committee meeting. Bridgend have a similar system - in fact it looks like a pretty identical website arrangement. Many other councils put this information out on their websites too.

Have a look at this link from Swansea and how easy it is to find out all sorts of useful information on their councillors.

http://democracy.swansea.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1&LLL=0?Lang=eng

In fact even the lowly Glynneath Town Council have this information to hand on their own website. So why haven't we got it?

This very question was asked by someone of NPT and this was the reply:

".........the Council records the attendance of all elected Members for all meetings as a matter of course, however at present an information summary is not published on-line as there is currently no statutory requirement for the Authority to do so.

Nevertheless, in the interests of open and transparent local government, and as part of its digital agenda, the Authority has been trialling new software which will allow for attendance records to be electronically published. If the pilot scheme proves successful and sufficient checks and balances are in place to ensure that the information published is robust and accurate then, with the approval of Council, it is likely that an electronic member attendance information summary will be published on-line from the start of the next civic year cycle in May 2017.

In the interim, I should point out that attendance of all Members is already publically (sic) available to view electronically by browsing the Council’s Committee Structure webpage and clicking on the relevant published printed minutes for the relevant meeting in question (see link ....)."

I can tell you that the link gave you access (eventually) to individual Committee meetings where you could check each one and find out who was there. It's not helpful. If you've a particular councillor in mind this is what you'd have to do. Find out what Committees he or she sits on. Call up the minutes of EVERY Committee meeting that was held that they should have been in. Check through the minutes. Log if they were there. If not, check if they made apologies or not. Collate the results.

Absolutely ridiculous!

Another example - do any of you know how to find out what our councillors in NPT have declared on the Register Of Interests? You'll be lucky to find it. I can - but it took me ages and I'm pretty well used to trying to find things on it. Anyone going there for the first time wouldn't have a hope in Hell. But I can go to Swansea or Bridgend, click on a clearly defined link and find out about councillors in their patch straight away.

That supposedly helpful, suggested link of NPT's about councillors' committee attendances is a joke. Do you think I've got that much time to live? I'm an old man, for Christ's sake! NPT need to get a grip and provide it just as other Councils do. You don't need to trial new software because the system's already functioning in Bridgend and Swansea right on our bloody doorstep. This Authority needs a stick of dynamite rammed up its backside and lit with a short fuse. I'll rephrase that - two sticks of dynamite instead and I'll make sure to light the fuse myself - because the match will be damp and useless if NPT try and light it. It's a joke - and we are the butt of it. Tell me, why are we lagging so conspicuously behind neighbouring Councils in basic information such as this?  Is it incompetence, laziness or deliberate subterfuge? Whatever it is, it reflects badly, really badly, on NPT. But those in charge probably don't give the proverbial rat's arse.

Being just a little cynical about the motives of this Labour shower in charge, I suspect the reason these figures won't be available until after the election next year is there's something that will embarrass them. And things I pick up on the grapevine reinforce that cynicism in old Stan. So I've had a look at one patch  - and I could well be right. Rest assured what I've uncovered will be published but I think I may well dig a bit deeper - you'd be surprised what we're not being told.

To be honest when people ask me where I come from I'm becoming used to eyeballs being rolled, tut-tutting, commiserations, and "no wonder you like a drink"! And that recent Question Time from Neath was the coup de grace. I'll be perfectly frank here - unless there's a sea change and soon I think I'll be leaving Mrs Stan and buggering off to somewhere, anywhere, where I don't feel so embarrassed about saying I live there. At least that will please some people!

We are a nationwide laughing stock, we really are. A town that had Peter Hain as an MP for over 23 years. The establishment's choice. Kinnock's boy parachuted in to part of the Council's area. The establishment's choice. An AM in Neath who some say was gifted his seat as a consolation prize because the previous year he couldn't beat Boyo who'd never stood for a seat before. The establishment's choice. A successor to Hain who was unsuccessful at previous attempts to land a seat in the Welsh Assembly and the EU Parliament - but was judged good enough for Neath in an All Women Shortlist. The establishment's choice. And last, but by no means least, a Labour run Council in charge since Noah built his Ark, that doesn't seem to know its arse from its elbow, and whose website, only just revamped at goodness knows what cost, is as useless as tits on a nun. The donkeys' choice.

I rest my case.