Councillor Watkins proud of record

Councillor Elwyn Watkins

Healey ward councillor Elwyn Watkins has been criticised for missing his Rochdale Council duties.

As well as being a Councillor, Mr Watkins is hoping to seize the Oldham East parliamentary seat from Labour Minister Phil Woolas at the next general election, and is employed by a Saudi Arabian sheikh.

Labour members say Mr Watkins has missed all his Rochdale council meetings since April this year.

Last week, Oldham East and Saddleworth Labour Party also accused Mr Watkins of planning to spend months out of the country, working in the Middle East.

But Mr Watkins said this was untrue, he had only spent four weeks out of the country this year, and he was taking legal advice about the claims.

Rochdale Council’s website shows that Mr Watkins has sent apologies for failing to attend two council meetings and two committees in May and July, and was not at a Health Scrutiny meeting also in July.

Last year he was removed as a governor of a Rochdale special school for non attendance.

Today (Friday 12 September) he said: “These are the first two council meetings I have missed since I was elected, and I have a 92 per cent attendance record since I was first elected in 2004.

“I am quite proud of my record but I have had to go away twice this summer for two separate periods of two weeks each time, which coincided with two council meetings for the first time.

“Not all council work is conducted in meetings, and I do a lot of community work, particularly with the Syke Base which was on the “Secret Millionaire” television programme which featured Rochdale this week.

“Ninety per cent of my time is dealing with case work, not in council. One wonders how desperate Phil Woolas has to be when I have only missed two council meetings.”

Joe Fitzpatrick, the agent for Mr Woolas, said: “We checked his attendance record on Rochdale Council’s website.

“It clearly shows that Councillor Watkins has attended no council or committee meetings since April 2008. This has now been confirmed in an official letter from Rochdale Council.”