Night of the Three Bitches

[The Great Dictator]

Is it true that Mr Riddle never attended full council ?

[DRiddle]

Is it true that Mr Riddle never attended full council ?

Absolutely true yes. It was the first full council meeting I've missed since being elected in May 2014. I missed it because I had a Year 12 parents evening at work.

However, in terms of my contribution in the meeting I missed, my name was on 14 motions, one of which was proposed of my behalf which was voted through. It reduced the mileage allowance elected members can claim DOWN to the level recommended by HMRC. That's something which should have been done years ago.

Now weigh up my contribution in a meeting I wasn't even able to attend, against numerous Labour councillors who sat there for nearly 4 hours and didn't speak (other than to vote).

[The Great Dictator]

If your name was on 14 motions shouldn't you have been there to see them through ?

[DRiddle]

It was unavoidable. I was at work, earning money to ensure I could afford to pay one of the highest rates of council tax in the entire country.

[Foggy]

I have noticed that the Labour Mob are a little obsessed with other councillor's attendance at meetings. CAB even attacked Kelly Atkinson on Twitter regarding this last year.

I have lost count of the number of times that some councillors have been forced to defend themselves and explain why they are unable to attend meetings. It appears that the Mob can't get it in their heads that some councillors WORK in REAL JOBS and have actual RESPONSIBILITIES outside the council chamber.

For the record... Sitting on one's backside in the Civic drinking tea while counting down the seconds to the next meeting then happily throwing tax payer's hard earned cash down the drain... Is not WORK!

I would rather have a councillor who attends 50% of meetings and makes a positive difference when they are there than one who attends 100% of meetings and says nothing.

[Land Phil]

Agreed, the big mystery is how some councillors have such a lavish lifestyle without jobs and not that Mr. Riddle works for a living.

Being one of the odd ones out doesn't make you in the wrong when it comes to the council.

P.S. Were any P111s ever filed for the benefit of over generous mileage allowances, I bet not.

[steveL]

It was SAB who starting the ball rolling on the attendance, making a sweeping statement at 'that side of the room'. It led to a direct retort from Brashy pointing out that he too worked full-time as a Teacher and therefore 'didn't have the luxury of visiting the South Coast while claiming to be somewhere else' - an own goal by SAB that someone should have warned him about beforehand before making accusations about absences or employment; not the most solid of ground for him to stand on.

Brash was pulled up by Devlin for making such a 'personal comment' which, encouraged by Devlin's bias, prompted SAB to suggest that he must have touched 'a rare nerve' on the other side of the room. Yes I did say 'rare', which is the word used by the semi-literate SAB and which produced laughter around the chamber.

For all the free-flowing personal remarks that came from CAB, SAB and especially the Poison Dwarf (hence the three bitches thread title) it was very noticeable that Devlin didn't pull any of the three up in the same way that he did Brash - something that Brashy himself pointed out to Devlin.

I've followed council meetings for years now and it's very enlightening that the current Chief Executive has been far more exercised by the issue of the public not standing for The Mace under SAB's Chairmanship then she has been about the plethora of breaches of the Nolan Principles which are supposed to govern councillor behaviour.

[fred c]

The attendance thing has become a regular stick to beat opposition councillors with, strange when off the top of my head i can think of 2 of the ruling group of clowncillors, not of pensionable age, who haven`t worked for years.

Another who when not on the pat & mick swans off at every opportunity, another who can`t swan off at every opportunity, because he hasn`t got a job & is unlikely to acquire 1 anytime soon, but if he did he could always say he was attending a funeral & swan off anyway & another who divides his time between gelling his hair & attending meetings.

[The Great Dictator]

Everyone should attend full council, if you register motions to full council you should be there to defend or debate them.

[DRiddle]

I assume you're either just trolling and looking for a bite, or you have no knowledge of how things work in full council in Hartlepool, or possibly both of those.

[Foggy]

I thought it was interesting that CAB insisted on staying to the bitter end and going through all the motions no matter how long it took.  Although, as well as the Mayor, I'm told that four other Labour Councillors didn't make it to the end, including Mrs Belcher.  In all honesty they may as well not have been there from the beginning as they contributed nothing, as usual.

Just out of curiosity are Councillor's attendance figures available anywhere for the public to see?

In my opinion, if attendance is monitored then 'contribution' should also be recorded. Maybe they could get one point for voting and five every time they spoke.  Those statistics would definitely shed a more realistic light on things.

[fred c]

There are a number of LabTor councillors who i never heard speak apart from for or against..... generally speaking they make a more valid contribution than those that do, witness Lying Ste & Barclays efforts on Thursday.

[mk1]

I assume you're either just trolling and looking for a bite, or you have no knowledge of how things work in full council in Hartlepool, or possibly both of those.

Yes but you keep replying to them both here and on The Mail site. Just ignore them because they are after a reply-any reply. I notice Geoff was prodded into a reply on The Mail site by the  mad cyclist. Just let them rant.

[Hubris]

Foggy asked if councillors attendance records are available.
Yes.
Go onto HBC website homepage. At the bottom is "show more"
From there click on "councillors"
Then you will see all of our 33 super-heroes listed. (You can look at them by name, by party or by ward)
Each name has a list of relevant stuff (register of interests etc) including attendance records. Ie how many meetings they COULD have attended vs how many they actually did.
Interesting reading, some surprises, but hard to draw any specific conclusions.
There's a big range of results. Lower ones less than 50 pct. Quite a few up in the 90 pct.
I thought it might show evidence that those with too many fingers in too many pies ( eg Big Kev sits on about 30 different bodies) would find it hard to keep a good average up. Or that those few poor saps that actually are in gainful employment might struggle.......but there 's no clear pattern. Have a look and see what you think Foggy.

[The Great Dictator]

I have many more years experience at a more senior level than you on the council so don't be a patronising little twerp.

Registering motions and then being absent is the cowards way out.