A TORY COUNCILLOR slammed the notable absence of Labour councillors at the last night’s key full council meeting at the civic offices last night (Wednesday).
A third of Labour councillors were absent despite key pieces of legislation timetabled for debate.
Stanford East and Corringham Town Cllr Danny Nicklen said: “It is disappointing that my two fellow ward councillors, Phil Smith and Roisin Hewitt are not here tonight.”
Political insiders are concerned that the high level of absenteeism is an indication that Labour do not believe they can win the council elections in May and have resigned themselves to at least twelve more months in opposition.
Chair of Thurrock Labour, Carl Morris said: “Many of my colleagues could not make it for a variety of reasons of which many were illness.All my colleagues put a lot of work in behind the scenes in fighting for what is best for the borough.”
Councillor Barrie Lawrence (Ockendon) is recuperating at home after a serious fall on the icy paths over christmas.
Is there a part of the Thurrock website where information is available for the ration of meetings that each councillor attends, surely if these elected people cannot be bothered to turn up to meetings to discuss things that may affect thier constituencies then they have no right to hold office, obvioulsy if they have a genuine reason, sickness etc then thats fine.
Found the link for the Full Council Meeting Attendances:
http://democracy.thurrock.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/CommitteeDetails.aspx?committeeID=392
Looks like some of the Labour members have fallen short with one member only attending 33% and another only 50%