Attendance in Meetings

Councillors have a responsibility to attend meetings when summonsed to do so. The notice to attend a council meeting is, in law, a summons, because they have a duty to attend, consider, in advance of the meeting, the agenda and any related documents which were sent with the summons; take part in meetings and consider all the relevant facts and issues on matters which require a decision including the views of others expressed at the meeting and take part in voting and respect decisions made by the majority of those present and voting.

The figures within each table are calculated on the basis of a twelve month period commencing from the Annual General meeting.

The figures are taken from the attendance section of the minutes of meetings. To ensure that the information is as accurate as is reasonably possible, the tables are updated once the minutes of a meeting have been agreed as a correct record. Before the minutes can be agreed as a correct record they are pre-circulated to relevant members to provide a reasonable opportunity to ensure that they have not been erroneously recorded as absent.

The tables do not state whether or not apologies were submitted and accepted regarding absence, although this information is accessible within the minutes of meetings displayed elsewhere on this site. In this regard it should be noted that like all people, elected members have competing work, family and other commitments and/or health issues to deal with that quite reasonably may affect their ability to attend meetings.

Attending Meeting Stock Illustrations – 236 Attending Meeting Stock Illustrations, Vectors & Clipart - Dreamstime