Council should publish attendance records

Could I suggest as a cost-saving measure that Argyll and Bute Council introduces legislation or an attendance page on its website in line with many other local authorities?

The council needs to publish attendance records of our councillors in an easy format via a web page so voters can make an informed choice based on the past performance of incumbents. Some council meetings are rubber-stamping exercises and a councillor can still do a good job without attending them.

In line with other councils, a monitoring officer could be appointed and could consider whether to launch a petition for a councillor to resign if he or she has, over the municipal year, an overall attendance below 40 per cent, attended less than two full council or community committee meetings, been convicted of a crime or moved outside the elected area.

If such a petition was set up, going by my calculations more than 33 per cent of elected councillors in the council would have to sign for a by-election to be triggered. In effect, we are wasting at least 33 percent of the council’s councillor budget expenses for the period from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018.

There are more ways to save money than budget cuts to the most vulnerable and in- creasing parking charges.

Angus Files,

The Glebe, Kilmelford.