Tory County Councillor disqualified for non-attendance

5.41.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Apr 2008

Ian Hasell, the local Liberal Democrat candidate

There will be a by-election for the Mendip North East County Division on May 1st. Liberal Democrats have already adopted local activist and former Mendip Councillor Ian Hasell.

The by-election has been caused by the disqualification of the former Conservative Councillor as the following statement by Somerset County Council's Solicitor confirms.

"Following a report I received suggesting that Michael St John, the County Council Member for the Mendip North East Division, had not attended any meeting at the Council for more than six months, I have carried out a detailed investigation with colleagues in the Democratic Services Team.

The most recent qualifying event that we can identify as being attended by Michael St John was the Regulation Committee held on 31st July 2007.

The law set out in Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) basically states that if a Member fails over a period of six consecutive months from the date of his last attendance to attend any meeting of the Authority he shall, unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the Authority before the expiry of that period, cease to be a Member of the Authority.

Attendance as a Member at a meeting of any Committee or Sub-Committee of the Authority or at a meeting of any Joint Committee, Joint Board or other body by whom for the time being any of the functions of the Authority are being discharged, or who were appointed to advise the Authority on any matter relating to the discharge of their functions, and attendance as a representative of the Authority at a meeting of any body is deemed to be attendance at a meeting of the Authority.

I have explored with Michael St John whether there have been any relevant meetings that he might have attended, but nothing has been identified. The most recent event was attendance at a briefing meeting organised by a Corporate Director, but that does not fall within the ambit of Section 85. He also attended a Training Session on the Revised Code of Conduct but that also does not count as a qualifying meeting.

In the six month period following the 31st July 2007 there has been one County Council meeting, there have been two meetings of the Mendip Area Working Panel and there have been two meetings of the Technical Working Group advising the County Council in relation to the future of Hemington Primary School. Michael St John had been appointed as a member of these bodies, but did not attend those meetings.

The legislation is not entirely clear whether attendance at a meeting of a Council Committee counts as a qualifying meeting even if the Councillor is not a member of the meeting concerned. However, the principal text book suggests that the Courts would be inclined to find that such attendance counted. For this reason, although Michael St John is not a member of

the Regulation Committee, I have treated his attendance at a meeting of the Regulation Committee on 31st July as a qualifying attendance. There is no record of any subsequent attendance by Michael St John at any meeting of the Council or its Committees etc, including Executive Board or the Scrutiny Committee and its Sub-Committees.

Accordingly, my finding is that Michael St John has failed throughout a period of more than six consecutive months from the 31st July 2007 to attend any meeting of the Authority. Accordingly, he has ceased to be a member of the Authority."

David Curry, County Solicitor