Acolaid: The rebuttal

Councillor Fred Pugh (Mapledurham, former leader of the Conservative group on RBC) has written to the Reading Chronicle to complain that the statistics the system produced by Reading's record management system are meaningless:

"I read your news item 'LibDems raise most issues' with increasing irritation.
To use Acolaid statistics to prove they are 'the hardest working councillors in Reading' is utter nonsense and spin of the worst kind.
Of course Mapledurham was the lowest in the table - it is a third of the size of all the other wards,"

which is why it only has one councillor to three for every other ward.

Cllr Pugh continues,
"You could put it another way and say it is the ward with the least amount of problems.
The truth is that my ward is full of intelligent people who sort out their own problems. They go direct to the council and don't come running to their councillor every time.
When they do, I pick up the phone and speak to the responsible officer avoiding council bureaucracy. Such calls do not appear in the statistics but the problem is dealt with more quickly and efficiently.
In my experience all councillors of all parties work hard for the community they represent, none harder than any other."

Cllr Pugh is a well known for his experience, but even so, his last line is a blatant falsehood.

Cllr Willis backs up his former leader's view in what appears to be the 'official' Conservative party line.

Oranjepan asks:
If the statistics are meaningless why is it not Conservative party policy to do away with the expensive record management system which collects them?

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