Shropshire councillor resigns after claiming £1,000-a-month without attending meetings
A Shropshire councillor who stopped attending meetings while still being paid her full allowance has resigned.
Councillor Clare Aspinall, who has not attended a meeting since November 2019, vacated her position on Monday morning, Shropshire Council confirmed.
The Oswestry East councillor came in for criticism for claiming her £1,000 a month allowance - a total of £15,000, despite her absence.
Under normal circumstances, councillors who miss meetings for a period of six months automatically lose their seat and a by-election is triggered.
But the rule was suspended at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and has not yet been reinstated.
Since the last council elections in May 2017, Councillor Aspinall has attended just 15 meetings out of the 54 she was expected at.
She left the Conservatives last year and was sitting as an independent member, affiliated with the Brexit Party.
At a recent meeting, Conservative leader of the council Peter Nutting said: “As regards allowance payments the recent government guidance suggests there is little we can do about non-attendance due to the pandemic, but this is being looked into and if it is possible to stop payments for members who don’t attend we will certainly instigate it.”
Conservative councillor Matt Lee, who represents the Llanymynech ward, has also been criticised for claiming full allowance despite not attending a council meeting since January last year.
He has not been selected by the Conservatives to run for re-election in May 2021.
Instead, Councillor Vince Hunt, who currently represents Oswestry West, will contest the Llanymynech division.
Clare Aspinall has been approached for a comment.
