LICHFIELD’S MP has been urged to step down from a role he holds on a local council.
Dave Robertson has continued to sit as a member of Lichfield District Council since he replaced Michael Fabricant at the General Election last year – and is also a local authority appointed member of the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel.
But Cllr Richard Cox, Conservative cabinet member for community engagement, has called on his Labour counterpart to step aside after he missed a fourth consecutive meeting of the panel.
The Armitage and Handsacre representative said:
“Lichfield district is facing some serious crime-related issues right now, but our concerns are not being heard at the panel because Cllr Robertson is not turning up to the meetings.
“Cllr Robertson should relinquish his role and allow a more committed colleague to take over.
“He failed to attend meetings on the 30th September, 18th November and 3rd February – and also missed the confirmation hearing for the Chief Finance Officer last year.
“This is of course exacerbated by the fact his nominated deputy has not turned up to these meetings either.”
Lichfield’s Labour MP said he was still dealing with issue relating to local crime.
He said:
“People from Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages elected me to act on their concerns.
“I have been contacted by a number of residents in north Lichfield regarding reports of significant anti-social behaviour last week. As a result, I met the commander of Lichfield Local Policing Team this week to discuss this and other issues across the constituency.
“I was pleased to hear that he has a clear strategy in place to tackle anti-social behaviour and I will be sharing an update from the meeting later this week.
“Unfortunately, this clashed with the panel meaning I was unable to attend.”
double jobbing needs to be banned. it’s typical labour greed.
Tell him all of the meetings will have a camera!
Farage has nine jobs on top of his role as an MP.
The £91,000 he gets as an MP is the lowest paid of these.
Somehow, that means that Labour politicians are greedy.
A reminder that Reform is a company owned by Farage.
But Labour people are greedy?
Is it me? Or is party politics getting stronger and stronger as the weeks pass by? Tories are angry and constantly posting. Labour is posting….
Tory Council. Labour MP. Lichfield doesn’t care about the politics, just make us great. Don’t let the people of Lichfield get caught in the middle of your fighting.
Democracy time let the people decide
“Unfortunately, this clashed with the panel meaning I was unable to attend” – what about the other 3 meetings… What about the District Council meetings… What about the unanswered letters from councillors and constituents. He is clearly prioritising his role as an MP, which is fine, it does pay more. But if he cannot perform both roles adequately then he should step down.
Lichfield Anon speaking sense and is what most of us are thinking. Whereas Professional Pineapple is walloping us with a hearty dose of irrelevant ‘Whataboutery’.
Not a great response to this either from our MP / Councillor / nice local bloke. Not been impressed by him or his party at all since July.
Yes, Sea Chandler, that is one of the many symptoms of the dysfunctional system of government we have in this country. All politics and no government. The system for choosing candidates for MP is seriously flawed, the first past the post election system, which most democracies have abandoned, virtually guarantees that the majority of people will not be represented in parliament, and in any case MPs are forced to toe the party line rather than what their constituents want, or face serious sanctions from their party. What a mess.
The bit that bothers me is, and I don’t want to cast any aspersions on councillor Cox but this is school or at a push student politics, surely we have more important issues to focus on than playing such games?
If “out of his depth, nice guy Dave” is cynically hanging on to his Council seat in the hope that public opinion will turn in Labour’s favour, then he’s in for a very long wait. Do the right thing, stand down and force the by-election that should have been called as soon as you squeezed in as our MP.
To clarify, Dave Robertson has been appointed by full Council at the Annual Council meeting on 14 May 2024 to represent Lichfield District Council on the Police, Fire and Crime Panel for Staffordshire. Again, he has failed to attend a meeting held on Monday 4 Feb, which included on the agenda to increase the precept being raised by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire. I would have expected someone from LDC to attend to ask questions to the Commissioner how increasing the precept (which will appear on your Council Tax bill), would benefit Lichfield District residents?
Of course, If you are happy that Lichfield District is not represented that’s for you, however I am not. The issue raised is not about attending a council meeting at Lichfield District Council, it is about representing Lichfield District Council on an outside body and if it were that important last May, to nominate Dave Robertson, why is not important today?
@Cllr Richard Cox – There was someone due to attend the panel – me. I was appointed as alternate. Unfortunately, I was attending the funeral of a friend on the South Coast so unable to make both events. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, life simply gets in the way.