Questions about problems contacting a newly-elected councillor were dismissed as ‘mischief-making’ by Argyll and Bute Council’s deputy leader.
Conservative Paul Collins won a by-election in the Lomond North ward in December, but has not attended any meetings of the authority since then.
And at a full meeting of the council last month Cllr George Freeman raised concerns about whether he could be contacted.
He said: “Obviously Cllr Collins is in the same ward as me. There was a delay in getting IT equipment to him and I have had a number of constituents and community councils asking how to contact him. Can I ask if this has been done?”
The council’s depute leader, Conservative Gary Mulvaney, then intervened and said: “I think Cllr Freeman is on a mischief-making exercise here. It is nothing to do with him.
“Officers will have done what they are required to do for every member who is elected. I don’t think this is a valid question.”
An official confirmed that Cllr Collins had been given the equipment – a video recording of the discussion is at the end of this article.
Afterwards a Scottish Conservative spokesman said: “It is disappointing Cllr Freeman used a meeting where Cllr Collins was not in attendance to make this point.
“Cllr Collins was honoured to be elected in December by the voters of Lomond North who know they can easily contact him in a variety of ways with any issues they have.
“Having been elected just before Christmas, Cllr Collins has had meetings with officers and has been dealing with constituent issues raised with him since January.
“His apologies were recorded for the last full council meeting.”
Cllr Collins won a by-election which was held following the resignation of his fellow Conservative Barbara Morgan.
According to the authority’s website he is the only councillor who is not a member of any committees, other than the local area committee.
It is disappointing that Councillor Mulvaney stated that this had nothing to do with me. He is totally WRONG. If my constituents (who are also constituents of Councillor Collins) and Community Councils in my ward contact me and request information on how they can contact Councillor Collins and ask what his email address is, does Councillor Mulvaney suggest that I ignore these legitimate requests? Maybe Councillor Mulvaney ignores requests from his constituents but he should not expect other councillors to do the same.
I had asked Council officers earlier in the year if Councillor Collins had the equipment supplied by the Council and could be contacted on the standard email address. I was told that this was being worked on. When the report came to the Council meeting confirming the election of Councillor Collins, It was totally legitimate for me to seek confimation that he had been rpovided with the equipment and was now contactable on the standard Council email address. Council officer confirmed that this was now the case. As Councillor Collins did not attend the Council meeting, I could not raise the issue with him at the meeting.
It appears that I may have struck a raw nerve as far as Councillor Mulvaney is concerned. As it has now been pointed out to me in the report above, as Councillor Collins has not yet attended any meetings of the Council since being elected in December of last year, is there an embarrassment factor as far as Councillor Mulvaney is concerned? There was certainly no mischief-making on my part.
With reference to the report above and my comments relating to difficulties that constituents and Community Councils were having in contacting Councillor Paul Collins, I did not want to identify any particular Community Council or constituents without their authority and was happy to let this matter rest.
Following on from my comments above, I have received an email from the Secretary of Garelochhead Community Council on this subject who has read this report and has confirmed that they are happy for me to publish the comments in their email confirming the statement I had made. The email from the Secretary of garelochhead Community Council reads as follows:
“Hi George”
“I saw there was an article in the Lochside Press about problems contacting Cllr Collins. I can’t read the whole of the article as it is behind a firewall but I was able to see that you were mentioned. For what it’s worth I have had real difficulties contacting Cllr Collins on Community Council business. When he was first elected I tried using his campaign email and social media contact details but he didn’t respond. The Council’s Community Council liaison officer kindly offered to pass emails on to him for me while his official @argyll-bute email was being set up but still I had no reply from him. Now his official council email is set up I have sent him a couple more emails but still I have yet to hear back from him”.
“I saw in the Lochside Press article that “Questions about problems contacting a newly-elected councillor were dismissed as ‘mischief-making’ by Argyll and Bute Council’s deputy leader”. This seems completely at odds with reality. Cllr Collins is impossible to communicate with in my experience”.
I hope that the above comments in the email from the Secretary of Garelochhead Community Council confirms the problems that many have experienced over the past three months when trying to contact Councillor Collins and that Councillor Mulvaney may wish to consider withdrawing his comments that I was “mischief-making” when I asked at the recent Council meeting if Councillor Collins had been provided with the appropriate IT equipment to communicate with our constituents.
Councillor Mulvaney should be well aware that, if constituents cannot contact one ward councillor, this increases the workload for myself and Councillor Paterson as the other two ward councillors so Councillor Mulvaney is totally wrong when he says that this had nothing to do with me.
It would be good if Councillor Mulvaney, as Deputy Leader of the Council and Leader of the Conservative Group within the Council, had the decency to apologise for his comments and withdraw them although I do not expect that to happen.