Maidstone Borough Council considered whether to approve the absence of Councillor Coates, who has been unable to attend meetings since April 2026 due to ill health, at its meeting on 30 September 2026.

Maidstone Borough Council considered a report at its meeting on 30 September 2026 recommending that it formally approve the reason for absence of Councillor Coates, who has not attended any council meetings since 29 April 2026.

Why the decision was needed

Under Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972, a councillor who fails to attend any meeting of the authority for six consecutive months automatically ceases to be a member, unless the council approves the reason for absence before that six-month period expires. With the next scheduled ordinary meeting of the council set for 2 December 2026, the deadline of 29 October 2026 would have passed without a decision being taken, placing Councillor Coates at risk of losing his seat.

Officers recommended that the council approve ill health as the reason for Councillor Coates’s non-attendance, and that the approval be reviewed at the ordinary meeting of the council scheduled for 24 February 2027. The report, prepared by Debbie Snook of the Director of Strategy, Insight and Governance, noted that no reason for absence should be approved without a time limit.

What was proposed

The report set out two recommendations: first, that the council approve ill health as the reason for non-attendance; and second, that the approval be reviewed in February 2027. Officers noted that the council could choose not to approve the reason, but that doing so would risk Councillor Coates automatically ceasing to be a member of the authority if he remained unable to attend before 29 October 2026.

The council had not published the minutes of the meeting at the time of writing, so the council’s decision is not yet on the public record.

Sources

Maidstone Town Hall, High Street. Picture: Clem Rutter / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0