Wrexham Councillor quits Labour Party
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Posts
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There seems to be two points here —
1. When some one is elected from a particular Political Party they will have produced their manifesto leaflet and told their community what they hoped to achieve. If elected it is on the basis of what they promised. When they leave a Political Party do they then send a manifesto to all their constituents to tell them why and more importantly what they are still promising to do. — when the ten Labour members led by Neil Rogers jumped to Independents I am not aware any other actually contacted all of the people who voted them in.This is not just an issue about Clr Bowland.2. Regarding attendance a Clr technically is only required to attend 3/4 Full Council meetings a year- Councillor selection for Scrutiny Committees is sorted within their respective Group and if any wanted to they could opt not to be a member. If they only attended 4 Full Meetings at 3 hours they will be paid over £1000 an hour attendance!!!
Next year everyone will have the choice of voting for an existing Councillor if they stand again or go for new blood. If your existing Councillor is standing you need to check out how many hours of attendance they put in– poor attendance is not unique to Terry Bowland (just check though if they have had personal reasons for non attendance)
We need to remember though, these councillors are on call 24/7 in their communities so attendance at meetings is only a small part of what their duties actually entail. Are your councillors there for you when you need them? Do they resolve issues within their communities? Personally this is more important to me. There may be councillors whose attendance is 100% at meetings but if they are not there when you need them, what good are they?
Sorry Dave, that is my point. ALL Councillors are paid. ALL should be attending. Councillor Boland is particularly poor though in comparison to others regardless of whether Independent, Labour,Plaid or any other group
Pinky, agree if I need to contact my Councillor then I hope they are available. But if they don’t attend Council meetings then how can the Council function. We are seeing things like this Arts Hub and Executive pay etc. How can I tell how my Councillor is voting if he’s not there. If my Councillor voted for the Arts Hub I would not vote for them next time.
Sorry for going on but this attendance is scandalous
The other reference point you can look at is whether your Councillor takes the trouble to write an annual report of their activities. In the Wales Audit Office report that is being presented to the Council Executive on Tuesday they state —
32 The Council encourages each Member to publish an Annual Report outlining
their role, responsibilities, key activities and training completed during the year.
The proportion of Members who publish Annual Reports has gradually increased
since 2012-13. However, only just over half (28) of the Council’s 52 Members
produced Annual Reports for 2014-15. For some, this was a missed opportunity
to demonstrate their involvement and contribution to the county borough, to their
constituents.Is YOUR Councillor open and one of the 28 or one of the 24 who cant be bothered– Unless there was a really good reason I would suggest that no one should vote for someone who cant be bothered to inform the people who voted for them what they have been up to..
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