Only eight county councillors outside of the cabinet wrote annual reports for constituents this year and their publication has only led to 41 website hits.

Members of the democratic services committee said that the public were kept up-to-date on councillors’ work via other methods nowadays.

However, the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011 requires that the Council ensures that all their elected members are able to make an annual report on their council activities during the previous year.

At its meeting on November 23 members heard that all cabinet members completed reports along with just eight other members – Cllrs Aaron Carey, Tony Baron, Tim Evans, Josh Beynon, Michelle Batman, Mark Carter and Michael John.

The reports outline the work undertaken by members, training completed, meetings attended and other actions carried out. They are available to view on the council website.

Cllr Elwyn Morse said he provided monthly updates to his community councils, as does Cllr Paul Rapi, while Cllr Di Clements questioned the value in continuing the scheme.

She was told it was a requirement of the measure despite administration costs.

Cllr Vic Dennis said that there was opportunity for scrutiny of members via webcasting of meetings, publication of expenses and attendance lists.

Cllr Michelle Bateman said it was different to ten years ago and things were more open now, with social media playing a big part as well.

“With webcasts it’s more easy to see which members are active and which are not. I did one [an annual report] and six people have looked at it and one of them was me! There;s other ways people can see what we have done,” she added.