KEN LEE reports from the Town Hall, where the continued absence of a new councillor could prompt a local by-election
Now you see her: Oni Oviri, second left, out canvassing with Tory friends, including MP Chris Philp (left), before she was elected as a councillor
There is mounting concern among Croydon Tories that they may be forced to defend one of their council seats in an unwanted local by-election over the summer, just as the Conservative Party is in the middle of a potentially fraught leadership election, and without having made any real progress over Brexit.
Oni Oviri, the young businesswoman elected in Purley and Woodcote ward last May, has managed to turn up just three times out of 16 council meetings and committees to which she was expected to attend since December 2018.
Oviri’s absentee rate so far in 2019 stands at
79%
with her having last attended a council meeting on January 28. She nonetheless still receives £11,463 per year in councillor allowances, the minimum paid to all 70 of the borough’s elected representatives.
Under Town Hall rules, any councillor who fails to attend council meetings for six months would usually forfeit their position as councillor. Oviri’s six-month deadline, therefore, is in July.
Now you don’t: Oni Oviri was missing from Croydon Tories’ Town Hall line=up this month’s annual council meeting and Mayor-making
Sources on Katharine Street say that Oviri’s absences have been due to serious illness contracted during a trip overseas. As such, that may give cause for her colleagues to seek an extension period to allow her to recover her health. That, though, would need to be done with the agreement of Tony Newman, the leader of the council’s majority Labour group.
Yet even before her spell of ill-health, Oviri’s attendance at council meetings had been notably poor.
According to the official council register, over the course of her 12 months as a councillor, she has attended just three out of six meetings of the influential General Purposes and Audit Committee, the last occasion on October 10 last year; Oviri has missed all 22 Member Learning and Development sessions staged in the last year; and in 2018 when she might have sat on 14 sessions of the planning committee, she turned up just five times. Of 13 meetings of the planning sub-committee, Oviri attended just twice.
It’s not as if Oviri has used social media to make up for her physical absences: she has retweeted just one Croydon Tories message since January this year.
Inside Croydon contacted Cllr Oviri for her explanation for her piss-poor attendance record. She has not replied.
Tim Pollard, the leader of the opposition Conservative group on the council, signalled the growing concern about Oviri’s poor attendance record and on-going health issues earlier this month when the novice councillor was dropped from the deputy shadow cabinet position she had been so speedily promoted into last year.
Chamber moment: Oviri’s maiden Town Hall speech was described as ‘barnstorming’ last July
Her absences mean that her colleagues in Purley and Woodcote ward, Simon Brew and curry house proprietor Badsha Quadir, have had to shoulder her share of residents’ casework, while substitutes have to be arranged regularly to take her place on council committees.
Such is the not-very-onerous workload of our councillors, there is just one full council meeting between now and October 7 – yes, one council meeting in almost five months. That next council meeting is due to be held on July 15.
If Oviri fails to turn up for that, then a local by-election could be triggered, which our mole outside the Croydon Tories’ HQ bunker in Purley tells us, “That’s the last thing we need at the moment.”
Based on last week’s European Parliament elections and the simmering resentment among the public at the Conservatives’ handling of Brexit, any such council by-election could see the Tories lose a council seat and – unless Labour suddenly discovers some campaign zeal in the south of the borough, or the LibDems have more to say that simply “bollocks” – Croydon Council might just get its first councillor for a party led by Nigel Farage.
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Her attendance may be poor… but there could be completely legitimate reasons for this…
Has anyone tried reaching out to her?…
Have you bothered to read the article?
Her attendance was poor before January.
Since then, it has been non-existent.
We contacted her. She didn’t respond. Maybe she was absent.
There is a thing called “good manners”! If you cannot make it to a meeting you are meant to contact the chairman and apologise for your absence. The apology is then minuted.
Even if she were totally debilitated someone could make contact on her behalf.
She is showing total disrespect to her fellow councillors and constitiuents.
So much for Mario Creatura’s great innovations to attract a younger and diverse Tories. An Oni Oviri posted attached bulletin on attached Free Market pressure group website on the 2nd May. It is a shame that she has so far been so free of providing public service for Council Tax allowances.
http://ifreetrade.org/article/africa_continental_free_trade_agreement_significance_and_key_challenges_ahe
Well done Inside Croydon for holding elected officials to account. It’s a disgrace even. If she’s “seriously ill” she should do the right thing and stand down.