New rules to spare absent Shropshire councillors the sack
New measures are to be brought in next week to spare Shropshire councillors who miss meetings due to the coronavirus crisis from being sacked from their roles.
Elected members of the authority are expected to regularly attend meetings of the full council and any committees on which they sit.
The council has a ‘six month rule’ which would normally see members lose their seat on the council if they go too long without attending a meeting.
The authority’s procedure rules state: “As required by section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972, where a councillor fails throughout a period of six consecutive months from the date of their last attendance, to attend any meeting of the authority, then they cease to be a member of the authority unless the failure was due to some reason approved by, or on behalf of, the council before the expiry of that period.”
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All meetings of Shropshire Council have been cancelled since mid March due to the pandemic, with the first remote cabinet meeting scheduled to be held today.
The authority hopes to run cabinet and planning meetings in this way in the short term, but has said other committees are unlikely to meet until social distancing measures are relaxed.
With fewer meetings scheduled and a higher chance that members will be absent, the council has proposed automatically accepting reasons for absences for the next six months, when the situation will be reviewed.
An extraordinary full council meeting has been called for next Wednesday at which councillors will be asked to adopt the temporary measure. There will be no other items on the agenda.
The summary says: “Due to the current ongoing coronavirus situation, it is likely that there will be fewer meetings of the council.
“It is recommended that, under section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972, the council formally approves the reasons for the failure of any member of Shropshire Council to attend meetings of the authority, and that the matter be reviewed before the end of October 2020.”
