Councillor Jane MacKenzie remains councillor for Bayston Hill, Column and Sutton

Clive Wright, Shropshire Council’s chief executive, said:

“I am very pleased that Councillor MacKenzie is to continue as a Shropshire Councillor for Bayston Hill, Column and Sutton. Our hearts have gone out to her, from both officers and councillors, following her recent and very sad bereavement. This has had a deep and completely understandable impact which we all want to accommodate.

“A complaint was received from a councillor and, under the law as set out in the Local Government Act, any councillor who fails to attend a Council meeting for a period exceeding six consecutive months, without this absence being approved, ceases to be a member of the Council. This is not a ‘council rule’ as some commentators have implied – it’s the law, with no discretion allowed on how it is to be applied. Permission cannot be sought or granted retrospectively.

“Councillor MacKenzie was contacted by me personally, by phone in the first instance, and a reasonable amount of time was given for her to provide details of any meeting she might have attended when she was representing the council over the last six months.

“Unfortunately, no response was received in time to prevent the decision that Councillor MacKenzie was no longer a member of the Council. This was despite me also contacting the Labour Group Leader and, as I understand it, his support being offered.

“Councillors do fantastic work and are involved in all sorts of meetings in their communities and so it’s impossible for officers to know about all of the meetings that a councillor attends. Sometimes councillors will attend several meetings in a single evening. This is why it is up to each councillor to be able to account for how they have met their obligation to attend meetings. Attending meetings is an important way of gaining understanding of and representing communities in our democracy. However, in this case officers did check all the records of our regular meetings such as full Council, Cabinet and scrutiny meetings, but unfortunately no evidence could be found of Councillor MacKenzie attending one of these meetings in the last six months.

“Soon after the decision had to be taken, another councillor fortunately made us aware that Councillor MacKenzie had attended an external meeting representing the council. This is just the sort of meeting that we would not necessarily know about and we were really pleased to be able to take it into account, quickly reconsider and reinstate Councillor MacKenzie.

“The council will often reconsider when it is justified and possible and this is very positive. For example, recently, a number of key decisions on savings have been changed because of public opinion and this is all part of being open, transparent and listening to people.

“In this instance the law had to be followed through as would be expected of any council or public body. However, we have drawn this matter to the attention of the Electoral Commission and so we can only hope that our experience will enable learning and improvement nationally. They certainly were keen to know what had happened. This is how the law evolves, with the benefit of experience.

“I am sorry for any distress this has caused to Councillor MacKenzie or anyone else involved.”