A CONSERVATIVE councillor who received more than £86,000 of public money and sent just one email a week over the last five-year council term will not be seeking re-election.

Margaret George will not contest the Irvine South seat this year – after the Times revealed how the financial advisor had not formally logged a single piece of casework since she was elected in 2017.

She also had not carried out a single surgery in four and a half years and has been absent from important community-focused Irvine Locality Partnership meetings expected from elected members.

After the revelations last October, North Ayrshire Conservative chairman David Rocks said: “We are currently going through the selection process for candidates for next year. We are looking to assess and vet the best team to go forward to the elections.”

Calum McClean will now contest the Irvine South seat for the Tories in the council elections in May.

North Ayrshire’s Conservatives were contacted but unable to respond before going to press – however the Times understands Cllr George decided to step down herself.

With all other current Conservative councillors listed again – Matthew Grainger will contest Ardrossan for 2022 after standing for UKIP in Kilwinning in the 2017.

Dalry and West Kilbride Cllr Todd Ferguson will also fight to represent the North Coast constituency alongside group leader Tom Marshall this term, after the recent victory of Ronnie Stalker in the by-election.

We reported back in October how records from the council’s customer relationship management system showed Cllr George logged zero cases between May 1, 2017 and August 16, 2021 as an elected member.

 

Irvine Times front October 26, 2021

Irvine Times front October 26, 2021

 

In comparison, her Tory colleague Todd Ferguson logged 289 cases with the software designed to track interactions between councillor and the local authority service provision.

A case is logged when councillors contact the council to request to access a service, however, non-service interactions are not taken into consideration.

However, Cllr George has sent just 427 emails between May 1, 2017, and September 6, 2021 – averaging one email a week for four and a half years.

According to a Freedom of Information request submitted to North Ayrshire Council, the Conservative and Unionist members sent 26,786 emails in this time, with the top performer sending 9,886 emails, 30 emails a week.

In addition to a £18,604 annual salary, councillors receive a salary and access to expenses as remuneration for their role in public office. Over the last five years, councillors’ salaries have increased from £14,654.61 to £18,604.

In total, it is understood Cllr George has been paid around £86,000 in salary and claimed £213.15 in expenses during her time with the council.

Fellow Irvine South elected members from SNP and Labour had blasted the apparent lack of work by Cllr George and urged her to reconsider her position in the future.

Back then, the Conservative group released a statement saying: “In terms of emails, I would’ve expected a councillor to have used the email system more frequently but it is possible that many of the contacts were done through community councils, or by telephone, or by meeting people in the street.”