Is two meetings a year really enough?

(by Jon Bamborough <jon@anchorsholme.com> on 28th September 2009)

Its an awkward one! I know as well as anyone that there are quite a lot of Blackpool Borough Council meetings that appear to be a waste of a good councillors time. There are far too many meetings that just involve several Council officers delivering a presentation or report. The "scrutiny" meetings very seldom allow any real scrutiny, in short, there are lots of "tick box" meetings. I do therefore agree with Cllr. Callow when he says its a much more valuable use of a councillors time to spend more time helping constituents and less time in meetings.

However, its easy to talk the talk. If you are not going to attend every meeting then you do have to be visible to your electorate. My own attendance at committee meetings was far from perfect, I did exactly what Cllr. Callow said was valuable. I spent more time in my Ward, mainly because I am one of the few Councillors that actually lived in my own Ward! But the 80 Focus newsletters that I have produced over the last few years are testament to the fact that I did get involved in the community. The fact that my address, email, phone number and mobile no were always available to the community also added to that testament, as did the regular surgeries that Steven Bate and I held over the seven years I was elected.

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• Re:Is two meetings a year really enough? (by Chris Heyworth <chrisheyworth@btinternet.com> on 23rd May 2010).