9. How does the Minister ensure that local authorities engage and communicate with residents? OQ59631

The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 requires principal councils to put in place a participation strategy. This must set out how the council intends to encourage and enable local people to participate in decision making and scrutiny processes.

Thank you for your answer, Minister. As you'll be well aware, constituents often turn to us for help in their darkest hour, and usually, after they've been passed from pillar to post by local authorities and other agencies, they come to us with their woes and issues. Now, in fact, a lot of constituents I help aren't actually getting responses to the letters and e-mails they've been sending to their local authorities, and one council in south-east Wales in particular has been particularly poor with their responses. I can say that I know exactly how they're feeling, having written to this particular council, raising my constituents' issues on countless occasions. Sometimes I'll get a reply, albeit not very useful, but a reply nonetheless. Sometimes you may be redirected elsewhere or, as is often the case, the letters will get ignored. In one instance, I'm still waiting for a reply to a letter I sent on behalf of a constituent several months ago, despite chasing the local authority for the response. Minister, do you agree with me that this is simply unacceptable? And will you please write to all local authority leaders in south-east Wales, calling upon each and every single one of them to urgently review these processes, to ensure that constituents are responded to within a reasonable time frame and, if it is the case, that no party politics are at play?

Well, there are local protocols in place for dealing with issues when the council hasn't acted as it should when carrying out its duties. But, perhaps if the Member could could either have a conversation with me or write to me outside of this meeting, I'll look at the particular issue that is being discussed this afternoon.

 I thank the Minister.