Row as no-meetings trial councillor stays in office
AROW has broken out after a council decided not to disqualify from office a councillor who stopped attending formal meetings of the authority six months ago when he was charged with historic sex offences against children.
David Boswell stood down as Town Mayor of Pembroke last August after being charged with one count of rape and six of indecent assault against two children aged under 13 at the time the alleged offences are said to have taken place in the early 1990s.
But he remains a member of Pembrokeshire County Council, where at last year’s election he won the Pembroke St Mary North ward with a majority of just six votes.
Mr Boswell was elected as a Conservative, but left the party at the time he was charged. He is due to go on trial at Swansea Crown Court.
Under local government law, councillors lose their seat if they don’t attend council meetings in a six-month period.
Last week it had been six months since Mr Boswell last attended a formal council meeting, and some other councillors expected him to be disqualified.
But the council has decided that because he has attended a number of council seminars that are not formal meetings of the authority he can stay in office – and continue to claim his council pay of £13,400 a year.
A statement issued by the council said: “Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972 states that if a member of a local authority fails throughout a period of six consecutive months from the date of his last attendance to attend any meeting of the authority, he shall, unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the authority before the expiry of that period, cease to be a member of the authority.
“The considered legal interpretation that Pembrokeshire County Council has applied is that this section is couched in wide terms, and that attendance at informal council meetings such as a seminar is included and satisfies the relevant attendance requirements. Councillor Boswell has attended such meetings in the last six months and his attendance has been recorded.”
But non-aligned councillor Jacob Williams has published a blog entry in which he takes issue with the council’s interpretation of the law.
He wrote: “Local government law spells out in great detail how council meetings must be legally constituted.
“They include Section 100 of the Local Government Act 1972, requiring meetings to be open to the public and press.
“Meanwhile Schedule 12 to the Local Government Act 1972 sets out a string of preconditions, including that meetings must be advertised with notice and for councillors to be formally summoned.
“Ad hoc death-by-PowerPoint sessions over lukewarm coffee behind closed doors fail on all these counts, and more.”
Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972 states: “[If] a member of a local authority fails throughout a period of six consecutive months from the date of his last attendance to attend any meeting of the authority, he shall, unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the authority before the expiry of that period, cease to be a member of the authority.”
The section adds: “Attendance as a member at a meeting of any committee or sub-committee of the authority, or at a meeting of any joint committee, joint board or other body by whom for the time being any of the functions of the authority are being discharged, or who were appointed to advise the authority on any matter relating to the discharge of their functions, and attendance as representative of the authority at a meeting of any body of persons, shall be deemed... a meeting of the authority.”
David Edwards, who was Mr Boswell’s Labour opponent at last year’s council election, said: “I agree wholly with Jacob Williams that attending seminars is not the same as attending a council meeting. In my view, he should be disqualified.
“All this time Mr Boswell has continued to pick up his councillor’s pay of £13,400 a year. And while he didn’t attend the last council meeting before Christmas, he did attend the councillors’ Christmas party at County Hall.”
We spoke to Mr Boswell, but he did not wish to comment.