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.
