We were just quorate for the full parish meeting as late summer holidays had taken their toll on members.

It meant a brisk trot through the agenda until we reached the ‘pallet’ problem. It’s one of those interminable planning issues which make Jarndyce and Jarndyce seem like an open and shut case.

So I suggested that perhaps we copy in our district councillor on the correspondence to see if he could get some resolution.

Some members laughed, one said something rude and another just stared at me like I’d announced I was from Mars.

You see our district councillor is very busy with lots of jobs and ventures and businesses but unfortunately that means there’s not a lot of time left for the boring work of actually representing his constituents. His lethargy in responding to correspondence is legendary.
In an idle moment of mischievousness I rang the district council once asking to see committee attendance records. It was alleged he was close to the six month limit of show or resign. Unfortunately attendance is recorded by the minutes of individual committees. If someone wanted to slog through the paperwork they could probably find out what our councillor’s attendance record is – but local reporters (and me) don’t have that kind of time.

Anyhow you can turn up to be logged and then disappear after ten minutes.

And since regular councillors don’t get a stipend each time they turn up you can’t request a list of how much they’ve claimed and find out that way.

Perhaps residents would be better served if councils could produce similar statistics on attendance and voting to those available on our MPs.