ATTENDING Powys council meetings is the central plank of a county councillor role, over and above attending town and community council and school governor meetings.
This is because Powys councillors are subject to an annual 60 per cent threshold meeting attendance across the year.
The 60 per cent figure is for attending committee meetings such as scrutiny, Planning, Licensing or any of the other types of meetings that are allotted to them in their county council role.
Going to meetings outside of Powys council does not count towards the figure.
At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Standards committee on Wednesday, June 17, councillors and independent lay members discussed the meeting attendance figures for the last civic year.
Between May 15 last year and May 14 this year, it was found that two councillors had failed to reach the 60 per cent attendance threshold.
Cllr Tom Colbert (Bronllys and Felinfach) who is now a non-aligned councillor again, having briefly joined the Liberal Democrat group from February to May, had a 56 per cent attendance record.
Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Bryn Davies (Banwy , Llanfihangel and Llanwddyn) had attended only 50 per cents of his allotted meetings.
The report said: “Cllr Colbert has advised that he has caring responsibilities for a relative which means that he sometimes is unable to attend meetings.
“Cllr Davies has advised that he has caring responsibilities which meant that he was unable to attend some meetings.”
The report continued “Cllr Davies has pointed out that attendance at meetings is only a fraction of his duties as a councillor which include attendance at five community council meetings per month, two school governing bodies, frequent meetings with officers and day to day work on behalf of constituents.”
Powys Independents joint group leader Cllr Beverley Baynham (Presteigne) said: “I fully accept the comments about caring responsibilities.
“But the second part of the comment by Cllr Davies that pointed out he has various community councils to attend to and school governing bodies et cetera, I think you’ll find that’s the same for all (county) councillors.
“I personally sit on two (school) governing bodies as do other councillors and attend community council meetings.
“I just wanted to make that point.”
Independent lay member Russell Stafford-Tolley said: “My concern is that the rule is in relation to main responsibilities.”
He accepted there are lots of other additional responsibilities but believed that it was appropriate for councillors to treat county council meetings “more importantly” than other ones.
Standards committee chairwoman and independent lay member Claire Moore said: “In discussion with the monitoring officer (Debby Jones) they have given a commitment to increase their attendance, which is reassuring “
Independent lay member Jonathan Goolden pointed out that they could claim carers allowance to help attend meetings.
Councillors can claim a Dependants’ Carer’s Allowance to cover the actual costs of care for a dependent such as children or disabled or elderly relatives while attending official council duties.
The committee noted the report.
