Last updated at 16:45, Monday, 04 March 2013

A MILLOM councillor who has attended fewer than a quarter of Copeland Borough Council’s meetings since he was elected has pledged to ‘make his voice heard’ from now on.

Councillor John Fallows, who represents Newtown on the borough council, has only attended eight out of 33 meetings since the May 2011 elections.

Cllr Fallows said he was unable to attend the meetings due to work commitments as a full-time Unite union official for the construction industry.

But following his retirement in December, he says he is determined to push Millom’s cause on Copeland’s agenda, as he feels it is over-looked.

He said: “When I was elected I had just been promoted to lead officer.

“I told them I could be anywhere in the country, because I was dealing with multi-national companies and national pay structures.

“I’d be in Leeds, Edinburgh, London, I could be anywhere. What are you supposed to do? Put your job on the line and go to a meeting, or let the members of trades unions down?”

Cllr Fallows, who is also a Millom Town Councillor, said his lack of attendance at meetings had not made him any less a representative of the town.

He said: “You don’t have to go a meeting to be involved with the community.

“I’ll have more time to go up there now – and I’ll be making my voice heard.”

The attendance figures also show fellow Millom councillor Fred Gleaves had the third lowest attendance record of the borough councillors.

Again, Cllr Gleaves cited work commitments for only attending 11 out of 23 meetings. He said: “I work full-time between 7.30am and 3.30pm and many of the council meetings start at 2pm. I can’t get time off from work, so I’ll go to meetings when I can. I do my best to attend. I travel back and forth, as most of the meetings are in Whitehaven.”

Copeland Borough Council chief executive, Paul Walker, said: “It would

be entirely wrong to judge the effectiveness of a member just by their attendance at scheduled meetings. There is far more to a busy councillor’s life than just attending meetings – their main role is representing the people who elected them, looking after their interests and ensuring their voice is heard.”

First published at 16:26, Monday, 04 March 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk