Letter: Councillor Attendance Is Not the Only Measure But Is Important

Published on: 27 Jan, 2026
Updated on: 27 Jan, 2026

Councillor attendance figures are published on the GBC website.

From Bernard Quoroll

former local authority CEO

In response to: Attendance Is Only One Measure of Councillor Performance

I have much sympathy with the very thoughtful views expressed by Cllr Houston but there are some additional points worth making.

The original idea behind attendance allowances was to compensate people in a modest way for the loss of earnings they would suffer in giving up their time. Some local employers even “released” employees to serve, on the basis that this bestowed kudos on the firm.

It was also not uncommon for councillors who could afford to do so, not to claim allowances. Being a councillor was seen more as a civic vocation than paid employment and the concern was to ensure that talented people were not being excluded by individual domestic circumstances.

With the increasing politicisation of local government, the world has swung more the other way. Some councillors do now see the role more as a job and have difficulty reconciling what they receive in attendance and responsibility allowances, with their own earnings elsewhere or even with what full time council officers are paid.

Some and I would say most, still see it as a vocation but I think it is important to retain a perspective. Local government needs people from all walks of life. It also needs to promote and retain the ideas of civic vocation and selflessness. Being a councillor is more than just a job.

It is also worth bearing in mind the path that technology is forcing upon us. Being elected has always been a “body contact sport”: ideally one in which people with strongly held views, thrash out their differences face to face in public, so that hopefully the better argument prevails.

Online committees will never, in my book, recreate that passion or testing of ideas as people queue up in silence waiting to be allowed to talk. Some online meetings are probably unavoidable but beware replacing heartfelt deliberation by dull anodyne debate. It may be convenient but there is a price to pay which is no less real for being unquantifiable.

It may for example not be long before voting in elections mainly takes place online or by post and the outcome of the count is announced on Tik Tok or Instagram. Before we abandon soap boxes and live sweaty theatrical counts (often revealing all human emotions), we need to think harder about what human elements need to be preserved and beyond just maximising turnout.

And as to attendance figures, the public have only limited ways of judging the performance of those who ask them for their vote. Turning up at meetings is one of them. It should not be taken in isolation and illness and domestic circumstance are of course relevant considerations.

But low attendance figures are in my experience, a good way of understanding whether a councillor is committed or just going through the motions. When the figures for attendance generally are in decline it is certainly a cause for concern.