FIVE councillors who were elected to provide a voice for the community did not complete a single piece of casework for residents during the last year, The Observer can reveal.

Figures obtained by a freedom of information request show 16 of 41 Slough Borough councillors (41%) logged less than 10 items of casework to the council from April 1, 2012, to March 31, this year.

Casework means listening to the concerns and problems of residents and trying to find solutions wherever possible by logging the issue on the council's monitoring system.

Councillors, who are paid at least �7,100 for their role, can and do use other methods to deal with casework - including going directly to departments or dealing with casework at their surgeries - and these figures do not include those statistics.

The five worst performing councillors were Balvinder Bains, Harjinder Minhas, both Upton, Antreev Dhillon, Baylis and Stoke, Amritpal Sandhu, Langley St Mary's, and Patricia O'Connor, Cippenham Green.

They all represent the Labour party, apart from Cllr Sandhu who was expelled following an Observer investigation which revealed he attended only 28% percent of meetings last year.

Cllr Bains, the current Mayor of Slough, and Cllr O'Connor both have more than five years of experience as a councillor and said they now log casework directly with council officers.

Cllr O'Connor said: "I have done a number of caseworks over the year, but go straight to the officer because it is quicker and more efficient."

Cllr Bains added he is committed to representing his residents and follows a similar process. The council's cabinet councillors also posted low figures - which suggests they also deal directly with officers.

Cllr Dhillon, Sandhu and Minhas were unavailable for comment as The Observer went to press.

Five councillors logged more than 50 issues - with Ted Plenty, Foxborough, Labour, submitting 99 cases and Diana Coad, Langley St Mary's, Conservative, 87.

Cllr Plenty also topped the table in our attendance investigation, with a 100% record for his 28 meetings. He was unavailable for comment.

Cllr Coad, who submitted more than 100 cases in the previous two years, said: "I wonder why people bother to be elected if they fail to do the work and elect people - it is so disappointing."

She added her casework has fallen this year because she has been away looking after her ill mother. Cllr Coad, a multiple sclerosis sufferer, has also been in hospital throughout the year after relapses.

The range of issues brought to councillors can vary from complex cases of schools admissions, fostering of children and planning for new roads to benefit claims, neighbourhood disputes, dog mess and faulty street lights.