Councillor attendance in Southend-on-Sea; a six-month snapshot
April 8, 2015 4 Comments
Recently Southend-on-Sea Borough Council voted to maintain an attendance record for its councillors. I opposed this, in part because of the extra burden this would impose when all around there are cuts, and partly because I am not sure that raw numbers tell very much. However, I was in a small minority (possibly on my own as I cannot recall any other dissenting voices.)
I have extrapolated the following information from the minutes I have received over the last six months.
| Councillor | ward | party | Attended | Apologies recorded |
| Brian Ayling | St Luke’s | Ind | 27 | 3 |
| Graham Longley | Blenheim Park | LDem | 27 | 6 |
| James Moyies | West Shoebury | UKIP | 26 | 1 |
| David Norman | Victoria | Lab | 25 | 0 |
| Ron Woodley | Thorpe | Ind | 22 | 0 |
| Nigel Folkard | Chalkwell | Con | 20 | 1 |
| Ian Gilbert | Victoria | Lab | 20 | 2 |
| John Lamb | West Leigh | Con | 20 | 2 |
| Martin Terry | Thorpe | Ind | 19 | 1 |
| Lesley Salter | Belfairs | Con | 18 | 0 |
| Carole Mulroney | Leigh | LDem | 18 | 1 |
| Steve Habermel | Chalkwell | Con | 17 | 0 |
| Mike Assenheim | Shoeburyness | Ind | 17 | 6 |
| Anne Jones | Kursaal | Lab | 16 | 0 |
| Trevor Byford | Eastwood Park | Con | 16 | 0 |
| Fay Evans | West Leigh | Con | 16 | 1 |
| Jonathan Garston | Milton | Con | 15 | 0 |
| Julian Ware-Lane | Milton | Lab | 15 | 1 |
| Peter Wexham | Leigh | LDem | 15 | 1 |
| Mary Betson | Prittlewell | LDem | 15 | 2 |
| Margaret Borton | Victoria | Lab | 14 | 1 |
| Tino Callaghan | Prittlewell | UKIP | 14 | 3 |
| Alan Crystall | Leigh | LDem | 13 | 0 |
| Derek Jarvis | West Shoebury | Con | 13 | 1 |
| Judith McMahon | Kursaal | Lab | 13 | 3 |
| Nick Ward | Shoeburyness | Ind | 13 | 3 |
| Ian Robertson | Chalkwell | Con | 13 | 10 |
| Lee Burling | St Laurence | UKIP | 12 | 1 |
| Mike Royston | Westborough | Lab | 12 | 1 |
| Laurence Davies | Kursaal | UKIP | 12 | 3 |
| Anne Chalk | Shoeburyness | Ind | 12 | 5 |
| Cheryl Nevin | Milton | Lab | 11 | 0 |
| Maureen Butler | Belfairs | Con | 11 | 1 |
| Mark Flewitt | St Laurence | Con | 11 | 2 |
| Kevin Robinson | Westborough | Lab | 10 | 0 |
| Derek Kenyon | Southchurch | Ind | 10 | 1 |
| James Courtenay | Blenheim Park | Con | 9 | 0 |
| Floyd Waterworth | Blenheim Park | UKIP | 9 | 2 |
| Caroline Endersby | St Luke’s | Ind | 9 | 3 |
| Andrew Moring | Eastwood Park | Con | 9 | 6 |
| Georgina Phillips | West Leigh | Con | 8 | 0 |
| Marimuthu Velmurugan | Westborough | Ind | 8 | 1 |
| David Garston | Southchurch | Con | 8 | 5 |
| Ann Holland | Southchurch | Con | 7 | 6 |
| Mike Stafford | Thorpe | Ind | 7 | 6 |
| Stephen Aylen | Belfairs | Ind | 6 | 0 |
| Adam Jones | St Laurence | Con | 5 | 4 |
| Paul Van Looy | St Luke’s | Ind | 3 | 4 |
| Chris Walker | Eastwood Park | Con | 2 | 1 |
| Ric Morgan | Prittlewell | Ind | 1 | 5 |
| Liz Day | West Shoebury | Con | 1 | 8 |
Liz Day has been unwell, and Chris Walker is the Mayor (and therefore usually only attends Full Council).
Attendance does not equate to contribution, but some of these numbers will arouse curiosity.
Julian's musings 
You need to do a Full Council, scrutiny and others table separately…. Tables like this usually show number of meetings you are expected to attend and those that you do. Showing that someone sat in the background at Cabinet for example isn’t particularly useful.
Anyone who suggests I’ve done a third of the work or contributed only a third of what Brian Ayling, the ‘most active’ (!) councillor, has done needs their head examining!
Anyone who thinks that Brian Ayling is the “most active” councillor needs their head examining.
Not much leads to the left and right agreeing…. but the indies have a surprising habit of doing so!
Sadly the list is very misleading as a lot of councillors get on as many committees as possible so there CV looks good, making no contribution.others do a few meetings and make excellent contributions