A councillor has lost his position on Burntwood Town Council for not attending meetings.
Paul Atkins had been an independent representative for the Chasetown ward, but was removed from his role after falling foul of the authority’s rules on attendance.
He told The Lichfield Blog that the decision was one he accepted, but one that he admits was “disappointing” – and confirmed that he was planning to stand down anyway at the next round of elections.
Mr Atkins – who is also a Lichfield District and Staffordshire County Councillor – said:
“I was informed that I would no longer be a councillor because I had not been attending meetings. Those are the rules so I can’t complain, but it’s been unfortunate that I have been under pressure from other authorities and have not been able to get to as many as I would have liked.
“I wasn’t going to stand at the next election anyway, but I hoped I might be able to hang on rather than resign and burden the ratepayers with the cost of a by-election.
“Other people will undoubtedly want to try and score political points out of this, given the elections are coming up, but I think there’s more to being a councillor than attending meetings. It should be about getting out there and taking up the issues of the people you serve.
“If you ask those people I’ve represented, they will tell you that I’ve always fought their corner.”
However, Burntwood Town Council’s Labour Group leader said Mr Atkins had “not bothered to turn up” and had let down the people of his ward.
Cllr Don Isaacs said:
“It is very sad that someone who stands for election to represent local people on issues of planning, supporting local services for their area and so on can’t even be bothered to turn up. People at least expect their council representatives to turn up at meetings to speak up for them on issues that affect their area unless illness or other very unusual circumstances prevent them.
“We will be finalising the Town Council’s Strategy for Burntwood over the next five to ten years at the next meeting on March 16 and Chasetown residents will be not be represented as they thought as at least one of their representatives won’t be there to speak up for them.”
Burntwood Town Council confirmed that there would be no by-election given the short timescale before the scheduled elections.
Sad to lose an independent councillor, but the formal business needs to be addressed as well as the public work. It’s a balance that Mr Atkins appears to have got wrong. In public, at least, he always seemed to represent his ward well.
Well that’s my vote gone to waste then.
Shame on you!
Its a real shame ive had a few dealings with paul atkins and as a resident of chasetown it will be upsetting to see him go, he has always put chasetown first and always has time for chasetown and its people, i wish him luck for the future!
i know, he was probably busy seeing the very people he represents cant say as much for any other councillor/MP once they are voted in u dont see them untill the next round of votes!
[edited for profanity: keep it clean please.]
I have known Paul for over twenty years both as a councillor & a member of the Labour party. His poor record of attending meetings goes back many years.He likes to give the impression attending meetings is unimportant and a waste of time. The fact are if your not there you can not influence decisions that may effect the people you represent. Paul cliams to be spending his time talking to the people of Chasetown. Thats OK but if your not at Council meeting how do you express the views of your constituents. I think his attendance at the County/Lichfield Council is equuelly as bad. It is all very well wearing your heart on your sleeve but you have to be where the action is to make a difference.
It is OK for Paul to talk about people scoring Political Points but once again, it is Paul himself who has created the situation and he has been on the council long enough to know the rules regarding meeting attendance. We all know patchwork is important but meetings are where policies and decisions affecting the public are made and are a very important part of the role of councillor. Perhaps people should research his excuse for themselves and look on the County and District Council websites to see another poor attendance rates.
In fact he’s only attended a third of the Full Council meetings at the County since May (leaving one of those before it had ended). At the District he’s attended only 5 of the 15 Council or Committee meetings. Being “Independent” means no one is going to discipline you of course for not doing the job you were elected to do. In the case of Cllr Atkins he only became “Independent” after he failed to get a seconder in his bid to be Deputy Leader of the District Council Labour Group – days after being elected as a Labour representative. A few more days later and he became Deputy Leader of the LIBDem/Independent Group. He is now the only “independent” left on the district council who supports the LibDems.
Makes you feel it is worthwhile going out to vote doesn’t it.
Perhaps if a few more didn’t attend meetings, we might get a lot more done.
I think that the Council should postpone the meeting of “Town Council’s Strategy for Burntwood over the next five to ten years”
Surely they could postpone the Crucial meeting if it is acceptable to leave Chasetown unrepresented for a “Short period of time” before the elections.
Smells a bit fishy to me.
The only thing fishy is Clr Atkins’ reported claim that he wasn’t told his continuous six months was coming to an end. Apart from the fact that you would probably notice if you hadn’t attended I asked this question in public at the last Council meeting. The Clerk stated that she had indeed kept Cllr Atkins informed of the danger of him becoming disqualified on more than one ocassion. Incidentally he missed the crucial meeting of the County Council when it was due to deabte the propsed closure of Burntwood’s Household Waste and Recycling Centre just as he missed the budget debates at both the Town and District councils! Chasetown continues to be represented by his “Independent” colleague, Cllr Emery, (also elected as a Labour candidate in 2007) and Labour councillor Ron Bradbury.