Councillors

The county is divided into five local electoral areas for the purpose of elections: Ballinamore (5 councillors), Carrick-on-Shannon (5 councillors), Dromahaire (5 councillors), and Manorhamilton (5 councillors).

Labour have seven councillors, six councillors are independent, the Greens have three councillors, and the Conservatives have two.

A seminar had been arranged for all councillors before it was ruled out by the democratic services committee and the requirement for wards electing at least three councillors wasn’t considered suitable for Monmouthshire.

Councillors are eligible for a basic allowance set by the Department for Communities under the Local Government Finance Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and the Local Government (Payments to Councillors) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019.

It also said councillors should be aware of the risk of them being seen as favouring groups or that schemes awarded funding are too closely linked to individual councillors.

The leader of Herefordshire’s Conservative councillors says his 14-strong group “will struggle to support” a proposed 5 per cent rise in the county’s council tax when it goes before all councillors for a final vote in two weeks’ time.

Cllr Julie Stevenson (Independent, Orton Waterville) added that “all three ward councillors and all 13 parish councillors” are against the application and that there was insufficient consultation with residents in the Ortons.

Conservative councillors also claimed seven seats alongside five Labour councillors and five independents.

Council leader Sam Corcoran (Sandbach, Lab) said: “There are some councillors who do rely on their allowances, some councillors who have given up work in order to do the roles that they do for the council.

District Councillors agreed unanimously to do so at their full council meeting in on October 24. And they decided for the councillors to be those who represent the nearby wards.

However Greens councillor Charlotte McCabe said communication between the lord mayor and councillors about the decision was "completely irrelevant because the delegation does not require any communication of the lord mayor with the councillors".

If the motion calling for Councillor Bradley's resignation was to pass, it would require all opposition councillors and some of his own Conservative councillors to back it, given that the Tories have the majority.

Just before last Christmas, councillors asked the state government not to proceed with the rezoning of 505 Minmi Road, Fletcher, with all councillors, except the Liberal Ward 4 councillor, voting yes.

Mayor Rob McDonald stated if councillors approve a pay hike for themselves they have to be able to justify that decision to the public while a committee working on its own wouldn’t help councillors do that.

Really just an observation, as if the past councillors would have followed proper protocol, then perhaps there would not be all the kerfuffle with the present councillors.

The final article, “I wouldn’t lower myself to answer’ - Councillors grilled on food vote,” published on May 9, 2024, covered a Council meeting in which Councillors were questioned about their involvement in the decision to provide free meals.

A panel of BJP councillors had already recommended that the agenda of water tariff be brought in the General House but it wasn’t included, something that had irked the councillors who had held officers responsible for the same.

A sizeable proportion of ANC councillors either voted for the DA candidate or abstained as the DA only has 8/39 councillors.

Those four councillors also lost their jobs in the fallout, as without a full quorum of councillors they could make no decisions, effectively leaving the council paralysed.

Ndara also noted since last November when the conflict among Swapo party local authority councillors started, he had noted the Swapo councillors had refused to heed any advice.