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Jun
Harrogate Reform UK councillor defends low attendance record
A Harrogate councillor has defended his attendance record after he was present at just 57% of meetings in the last year.
A council report due before a standards and governance committee next Friday (June 19) said Cllr John Mann, Reform UK councillor for Oatlands and Pannal on North Yorkshire Council, had attended 20 meetings out of an expected 35 between May 2025 and April 2026.
Cllr Mann told the Stray Ferret he had adapted to a “more realistic workload” and reduced his commitment to four council committees.
The Reform councillor currently sits on Harrogate and Knaresborough area committee, general licensing and registration committee, scrutiny of health committee and care and independence overview and scrutiny committee.
The attendance amounts to Cllr Mann being present at 57% of meetings — below the council’s target of 66%.
The Stray Ferret asked Cllr Mann if he could explain why his attendance did not meet the threshold.
He said:
I have been a councillor since 2014 and chaired various committees, but the 2025- 2026 period was one of the busiest I have experienced. Most councillors are only involved in three or four different committees but for that period I had agreed for a variety of reasons to be involved in no less than six committees - Strategic Planning, Housing & Leisure, Health, Children & Families, Harrogate Planning Committee, and the Local Plan Development Committee. However, I quickly found it was not easy juggling such a large number of committees, especially at a time when I was having to put in extra hours at work.
Since I recently joined the Reform UK party, I’ve taken the opportunity to adopt a more realistic workload at the council for 2026-27 and have reduced my commitment to four committees, which I’m finding is more manageable and still enables me to carry on working with a reasonable work life balance. I think it’s important that councils are composed of both working and retired people as continuing to work gives you a wider perspective and keeps you in touch with the concerns of alarm clock Britain.
Former civil servant Cllr Mann announced he had joined Reform UK in February this year.
Cllr Mann, who was a longstanding Conservative councillor, said he had made the decision as he believed Britain was “broken on a national and local level”.
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