Councillors with less than 60 per cent attendance record will be asked to explain why they did not turn up to meetings, it has been confirmed.
Newtown, Abermule and Llanidloes county councillors are among those who will be questioned, as reported by MyNewtown yesterday.
Powys County Council’s (PCC) Standards committee was given a list of all 73 councillors with data showing how many meetings they should have been at, during the civic year from 15 May 2018, to 17 May 2019.
Of the 73, 10 councillors were listed as having been present at less than 60 per-cent of meetings they were supposed to.
Committee member Cllr Sarah Lewis (Conservative – Brecon St Mary) declared an interest in the item as she is one of the 10.
Deputy monitoring officer Debby Jones, outlined the report and said:
“Attendance for main committees has been calculated. 10 councillors have been highlighted.
“The procedure from here on, subject to committee agreeing, is to contact all those 10 asking for them to explain their attendance. That would be considered at our next meeting on October 2.”
Committee chairman, Stephan Hayes, said: “Are we happy to follow procedure and write to all the members?”
The committee agreed.
Mr Hayes added: “We will then have that in place for the next meeting.”
The report states that during the civic year, both Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson and Liam Fitzpatrick had periods of illness.
Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson was granted a six-month period of absence by the council from July 12, 2018.”
Cllr Liam Fitzpatrick was ill from March 2018 to July 2018.
The councillors with less than 60 per cent attendance are:
Gareth Morgan (Liberal Democrat – Llanidloes) – 54 per cent (14 of 26 meeting).
Neil Morrison (Conservative – Newtown South) – 38 per cent (eight of 21 meetings).
Gareth Pugh (Conservative – Dolforwyn) – 58 per cent (21 of 36 meetings).
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
