Through his letter (Your Views, April 21) Councillor. William Stoodley helpfully confirmed what Councillor Bill Stephenson told me at the last council meeting; that Labour operates a rota system for the planning committee. His argument that it provides reserve members with the opportunity to gain some experience might appear reasonable enough.
However, the attendance records of the other Labour members suggests the only person regularly rotated off the committee is Cllr Stoodley.
While he has only attended two out of 12 meetings, two other Labour members have attended 11 and the Labour chairman has attended all 12. So Cllr Stoodley is responsible for more than 80 per cent of his party’s absences from the planning committee.
How Labour wishes to organise the committee attendance isn’t my concern and, as I have said, I can see the logic in trying to give reserves a bit of experience now and then.
But if, as Cllr Stoodley states, the chairman has devised the rota for planning, he might want to ask him why he’s the only one who keeps being rotated off. Because at the moment, it almost looks like he’s trying very hard to keep Cllr. Stoodley away from his committee.
Councillor Susan Hall
Conservative group leader Harrow Council
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