CRUMBRIA: 11.03.2025
HOW much public money has been paid to high-ranking Councillor Ali Jama who has now racked up an unenviable record of missing more meetings than he attends?
After last week’s outcry about the Councillor who owes nearly £3,000 in unpaid Council Tax, another murky affair has unfolded on Wokemoreland & Farcical Council.
Cllr Jama was a darling of the Council’s ruling party, the Lib Dems, having been elected Deputy Chairman of the Council three times in successive years.
Yet due to the Kendal-based member’s increasing commitments in, er, Kenya, there has been an alleged “fall out” over his no-shows, according to reports.
And the Councillor has now very suddenly and rather quietly parted ways with the Kendal Lib Dem family.
He will leave his place at the top table and now sit as an Independent from the obscurity of the back benches, according to some very good detective work by hyper local news site Penrith Town.
Cllr Jama was first elected as Deputy Chairman of the Shadow Westmorland & Furness Council in May 2022 – proposed by current Lib Dem Council leader, Cllr Jonathan Brook.
In that “shadow” year, Cllr Jama’s attendance rate was 86%.
In April 2023, for the first full year of the new Council (2023-24), Cllr Jama was elected Deputy Chairman.
Over that year, Cllr Jama was absent from 65% of meetings and present for just 35%. (Attending six meetings, absent from 11.)
It does not appear to have affected belief in his ability to commit to Council matters, because in May last year (2024), Cllr Jama was again elected Deputy Chairman to make it a hat-trick.
Since then, he’s been absent from 61%of meetings and present at 39%. (Attending six meetings, absent from 11).
He has, however, managed to represent the Council at no less than 10 official engagements.
While none of us can foresee when life’s thunderbolts might strike or your circumstances suddenly change, when you’re elected and on the public payroll and have political commitments, it’s probably best to step down if you can’t commit to attending meetings.
Westmorland & Furness Councillors are entitled to a taxable basic allowance of £13,500 paid in monthly instalments. Special Responsibility holders get bonus payments.
Cllr Jama, as Deputy Chairman, was also eligible for an SR of £2,500.
All told, that would amount to receiving more than £1,000 a month from the Council before tax.
The question is, does the Council deduct sums for those who don’t go to meetings, or is it blindly paid out in full?
And if all is tickety-boo, why part company with the Lib Dems?
Unnamed Council spinners, paid for by the public but operating out of the shadows in our Town Hall corridors, certainly don’t seem in any mood to over-elaborate to the media.
It’s just further secrecy at a public organisation which continues to protect the anonymity of the mystery Councillor who owes the Council close to £3,000 in unpaid Council Tax.
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