Dudley councillor sacked after failing to attend meeting for six months
A councillor in the Black Country who did not any meetings in six months has lost his council seat.
Dudley councillor Mike Attwood, who represents Norton, was removed after breaching local government rules.
Mr Attwood, whose seat will be vacant until next May, was originally voted onto the council in 2004 when he stood as a Conservative.
But he defected in 2018 to Labour, helping the party win control of the council from the Conservatives amid his criticism of the party.
Explaining his defection at the time, he said he had become involved in the council through community work and his local Stourbridge Conservative group was not interested.
Mr Attwood was sacked from the council in April but his dismissal only came to light after a notice advertising his seat was vacant was posted on Dudley Council’s website.
It stated: "Mike Attwood last attended a meeting of the borough council on October 7, 2019, when he attended the full council meeting.
"Officers have undertaken thorough checks of attendance records and minutes of meetings. There is no record of Mike Attwood attending a meeting between October 7, 2019 and April 7, 2020.
"Within that period council has not given its approval to any reason for failure to attend and therefore Mike Attwood ceased to be a councillor by virtue of Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972."
Labour councillors have said he was unable to attend the appeals committee in March after the council suspended all meetings during the coronavirus outbreak.
Mr Attwood was unavailable for comment.
