Leicester city councillors facing a grilling over attendance

Leicester city council Labour group's whip says she has had to "have a word" with some of the party's members about their attendance levels at meetings.

Councillor Barbara Potter, who is in charge of keeping discipline among the 51 Labour members sitting on the authority, said she was concerned a number of them were not going to enough meetings at the Town Hall.

Today, the Leicester Mercury publishes the attendance rates of all the city's politicians for the meetings they were expected to attend, between May last year and Tuesday.

Each member is expected to attend all of the seven full council meetings a year and may sit on one or more committees.

Attendance records are published on the council's website.

Three councillors had a 100 per cent attendance rate over the past 16 months.

A number have been present at about half the meetings they were expected at but said illness affected their attendance.

Coun Potter, who herself has a 97 per cent attendance rate, said: "Councillors have a duty to attend meetings, particularly when they are claiming allowances for them.

"In some cases, they have had health issues that have been cleared with me but for some I have had to have a word because they are not attending enough."

She did not name any particular councillors but Councillor Iqbal Desai, who represents Stoneygate, was asked to resign from the party following concerns about his attendance.

Since May 2011, he has been to 45 of 72 meetings. He was not available for comment yesterday.

Coun Potter said ill health had prevented Anne Glover, who represents Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields, from attending.

Coun Glover, who has a 46 per cent attendance record, said: "I have been seriously ill and I am still unwell.

"I do not like being unable to fire on all cylinders.

"I have discussed this with the whip and said that if I am not right by Christmas I will stand down.

Coun Glover said that there was more to being a councillor than attending meetings.

She said: "I still do a lot in my ward. I do my very best for people in my area and they know that."

Veteran Labour councillor John Thomas, who has a 63 per cent attendance record, agreed. He said he was more concerned about representing and campaigning for people in his Belgrave ward than attending meetings.

He said: "Being on the council is about getting out and working for people, not about sitting in the town hall or Faulty Towers (the nickname for the city council's soon to be demolished New Walk headquarters) firing off e-mails and trying to look important."

Liberal Democrat councillor Nigel Porter, who represents Aylestone, disputed his attendance figures as they appeared on the city council's website.

He was recorded as attending 54 of 87 meetings.

He said: "That's just not right. I'm down as being on committees I am not a member of and attending some meetings that I know I have not been to.

" I'll be taking it up with officers because my attendance is higher than it suggests."

The Mercury tried to contact a number of other councillors with lower attendance records, including former leader Veejay Patel and ex-lord mayor Rob Wann, but they were unavailable.

Castle ward councillor Neil Clayton attended all 43 of the meetings he was due at.

He said: "I don't find the meetings onerous.

"I am fortunate because, as chairman of a scrutiny commission, those meetings can only happen when I can be there.

"I also work in the city and don't have the family commitments some other councillors do. Some have had a pretty awful run with health and I have been lucky in that respect."

A city council spokeswoman said the authority had no power to make members attend meetings, but anyone who did not attend a meeting in six months would be struck off unless they had an approved reason for not turning up.

ATTENDANCE: Council Meetings April 30, 2011 to October 9, 2012

Councillor	Ward	Expected	Attended	%
Alfonso (Lab)	New Parks	49	49	100
Aqbany (Lab)	Spinney Hills	33	25	75
Bajaj (Lab)	Evington	37	35	95
Barton (Lab)	Western Park	86	82	95
Bhatti (Lab)	Rushey Mead	46	41	89
Bhavsar (Lab)	Abbey	49	39	80
Byrne (Lab)	Abbey	51	50	98
Cassidy (Lab)	Fosse	35	33	94
Chaplin (Lab)	Stoneygate	48	39	81
Chowdhury (Lab)	Spinney Hills	67	61	91
Clair (Lab)	Rushey Mead	42	34	81
Clark (Lab)	Aylestone	42	35	83
Clayton (Lab)	Castle	43	43	100
Cleaver (Lab)	Eyres Monsell	43	39	91
Cole (Lab)	Western Park	28	21	75
Connelly (Lab)	Westcotes	70	57	81
Cooke (Lab)	Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields	69	57	83
Corrall (Lab)	New Parks	69	57	83
Cutkelvin (Lab)	Freemen	27	23	85
Dawood (Lab)	Spinney Hills	46	41	89
Dempster (Lab)	Beaumont Leys	34	33	97
Desai (Ind)	Stoneygate	72	45	63
Fonseca (Lab)	Thurncourt	45	39	87
Glover (Lab)	Braunstone Park and Rowley	69	32	46
Grant (Con)	Knighton	53	37	70
Gugnani (Lab)	Knighton	54	47	87
Joshi (Lab)	Belgrave	69	49	71
Kamal (Lab)	Stoneygate	38	31	82
Kitterick (Lab)	Castle	62	53	85
Marriott (Lab)	Abbey	50	40	80
Mayat (Lab)	Coleman	53	41	77
Meghani (Lab)	Beaumont Leys	41	39	95
Moore (Lab)	Knighton	73	68	93
Naylor (Lab)	Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields	87	80	92
Newcombe (Lab)	Charnwood	35	35	100
Osman (Lab)	Charnwood	37	28	76
Palmer (Lab)	Eyres Monsell	40	34	85
Patel V (Lab)	Latimer	23	14	61
Patel R (Lab)	Humberstone and Hamilton	45	38	84
Porter (Lib Dem)	Aylestone	87	54	62
Potter (Lab)	Humberstone and Hamilton	58	56	97
Russell (Lab)	Westcotes	35	28	80
Sandhu (Lab)	Humberstone and Hamilton	47	25	53
Sangster (Lab)	Coleman	45	34	76
Senior (Lab)	Castle	29	28	97
Shelton (Lab)	Freeman	74	55	74
Singh (Lab)	Evington	48	45	94
Sood (Lab)	Latimer	51	50	98
Soulsby (Lab)	N/A	38	37	97
Thomas (Lab)	Belgrave	59	37	63
Unsworth (Lab)	New Parks	62	54	87
Waddington (Lab)	Fosse	48	44	92
Wann (Lab)	Thurncourt	17	11	65
Westley (Lab)	Beaumont Leys	72	59	82
Willmott (Lab)	Rushey Mead	58	55	95
Source: Leicester City Council