Two Shropshire councillors paid full allowance despite not attending meetings for a year

Councillor Clare Aspinall has not attended a meeting since November 2019, and Councillor Matt Lee since January this year.

Under normal circumstances, councillors who miss meetings for a period of six months automatically lose their seat and a by-election is triggered.

But the rule was suspended at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and has not yet been reinstated.

Councillor Aspinall is one of two members representing Oswestry East, but residents in Councillor Lee’s Llanymynech ward have been left completely without representation for almost a year.

Both were asked to explain their prolonged absences but neither responded.

Meanwhile they continue to be paid their full allowance of nearly £1,000 a month.

Since the last council elections in May 2017, Councillor Aspinall has attended 15 meetings out of the 54 she was expected at, while councillor Lee was present at 16 of the 39 meetings he was due to attend.

Councillor Lee is a member of the ruling Conservative group, while Councillor Aspinall left the Conservatives last year and now sits as an independent member, affiliated with the Brexit Party.

Peter Nutting, the Conservative leader of the council, said: “I am disappointed with the attendance record of Matt Lee but have assured all the local parish councils that I will follow up any problems or queries they have.”

Councillor Nutting has attended recent parish council meetings in Councillor Lee’s ward to answer any questions they have, including about the River Severn Partnership and plans for a possible dam upstream from Shrewsbury.

He added: “As regards allowance payments the recent government guidance suggests that there is little we can do about non attendance due the pandemic, but this is being looked into and if it is possible to stop payments for members who don’t attend then we will certainly instigate it.”

He also confirmed that Councillor Lee had not been selected by the Conservatives to run for re-election in May 2021.

Instead Councillor Vince Hunt, who currently represents Oswestry West, will contest the Llanymynech division.

Councillor Hunt has represented Oswestry West since Shropshire Council was formed in 2009, and currently has the smallest majority of any member having held onto the seat by just 11 votes in 2017.

He was cleared of wrongdoing after the road outside his countryside home was resurfaced ahead of many other roads in the county in need of work.