COUNCIL group leaders are to be reminded to stress to their councillors the importance of attending meetings.
Figures for the past year show overall attendance at meetings for Torfaen Borough councillors fell to 77.2 per cent across 2025/26, which is 2.1 per cent lower than in the 2024/25 municipal year.
When the attendance report was discussed at the council’s ethics and standards committee its independent chair, Rhodri Guest, said he would write to the leaders of the Labour controlled council’s four political groups.
Deputy leader Richard Clark flagged up how two councillors from his own Labour Party had been booted off Pontypool Community Council earlier this year for failing to attend any of its meetings for six months and suggested the minimum attendance requirement could have to increase for the issue to be addressed.
The Croesyceiliog councillor said: “We did have at Pontypool Community Council recently two members kicked off as they had not attended for six months and we saw the furore in the press.”
Cllr Clark said councils can already grant exemptions on the attendance requirement if councillors are in poor health but said national government would need to consider if the requirement to attend should be greater than once every six months.
“A lot of this is because of clashes with work rather than malaise but if it is malaise then once every six months is not really a deterrent,” said Cllr Clark.
Independent member Mark Rees asked if it was “within the gift” of the council to up the attendance requirement or if the once in every six months figure is set by legislation.
Monitoring officer Delyth Harris confirmed the figure was set out in legislation and though it forms part of the council’s constitution it can’t be changed as it is set in law.
Cllr Clark, whose own overall attendance figure was 84 per cent for the year having attended 16 of 19 meetings he was required to, made the point a councillor who attended two of four committee meetings would have the same 50 per cent attendance rate as one who was present for 16 of 32 meetings.
Head of democratic services Tom Roberts said officers try to arrange meetings at times most members can attend but acknowledged clashes can still occur and said: “Members often have other jobs, are on community councils, are school governors or they are parents, grandparents and carers. It’s not always a straightforward case of attendance is good or bad.”
He added changing meeting times wouldn’t necessarily improve attendance: “It could almost end up biting off your nose to spite your face as those who’ve been attending could be affected by clashes with their diaries.”
Committee chairman Mr Guest said he would write to the leaders of the Labour, Reform UK and the two groups of independent councillors “around the importance” of attendance.
No individual councillor’s attendance was discussed at the meeting where the report broke down every councillor’s overall attendance figure, their attendance at full council meetings and attendance at committee meetings.
Independent councillor for Aberyschan Giles Davies had the lowest overall attendance figure, from May 2025 to May 2026 at 29 per cent, having attended five of 17 meetings.
Cllr Davies told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had been off sick, including being unable to attend his full-time job, and said: “I was off for about eight months.”
He said he felt the report should have included the reason for his low attendance was ill health.
The figures also showed some councillors had failed to attend any meetings of committees they have been appointed to.