West Lancs councillor shouldn’t claim two full allowances

Cllr Paul Moon’s attendance record shows he can’t fulfil the role at West Lancashire and Wyre at the same time and should resign

In October, after a local blog site, West Lancashire Record revealed that Hesketh Bank councillor Paul Moon was also a sitting councillor for Wyre. We called on Cllr Moon to resign.

In the correspondence, Cllr Moon said “As for meeting attendance the only ones I’ve not attended are for holidays that were booked prior to the election in May.”. We pointed out that the public attendance records at Wyre and West Lancashire painted a different story.

After further recent absences including from the full council meeting at West Lancashire last night (14 December) Our West Lancashire councillor, Adrian Owens has written again to Councillor Moon and the correspondence is detailed below. We will update this page when Cllr Moon replies.

Email to Cllr Paul Moon – 15th December 2016

Dear Paul,

In our recent correspondence you stated in the attached email “As for meeting attendance the only ones I’ve not attended are for holidays that were booked prior to the election in May.” I then pointed out in the email of 23 October at 2032 hours that you had also missed several other meetings.

Given this exchange, I had expected that your attendance would improve, so I was surprised to note that you were absent from the full council meeting at West Lancashire last night, giving apologies. The meeting discussed important matters including the approval of a revised capital programme with an important project in your Hesketh Bank ward; new Living Wage levels and our council tax support scheme on which your ward residents would have expected your input.

This is not the only formal council meeting that you have missed recently. On November 24th, you were absent from a meeting you were expected to attend at Wyre on their Licensing Committee because you were attending a meeting of the Executive Overview and Scrutiny Committee in West Lancashire – another diary clash between the two councils.

It appears clear from your attendance records at both councils, that you are struggling and unable to devote the necessary attention to complete both roles fully. I am therefore writing to ask you to confirm whether or not you are currently receiving the full councillor allowance from both Wyre and from West Lancashire and I look forward to your response to this specific point.

In all the circumstances, I repeat that the only honourable course of action in the circumstances is for you to resign as a member of West Lancashire Borough Council with immediate effect.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Adrian Owens, Our West Lancashire