Just how hard do our Maidstone borough councillors work?

It’s a difficult question to answer. Some are out and about in their wards talking to residents and dealing with their queries on a daily basis. Others are less easy to reach.

Some spend hours researching the topics on their agenda papers in advance, others appear to skim through them for the first time just before the start of a council meeting.

Almost the only quantifiable measure is to look at their attendance records.

The council notes and publishes on its website the attendance record for each councillor.

They make interesting reading.

In the 25-week period between July 31, 2014, and 23 January, 2015, there were 15 councillors who achieved a 100% attendance record, appearing at every full council or committee meeting that they were due to attend.

The “golden 15” were Cllrs Annabelle Blackmore, Dave Burton, Dan Daley, Chris Garland, Tony Harwood, Steve McLoughlin, Brian Mortimer, Dave Naghi, Peter Parvin, Eddie Powell, Marion Ring, Dave Sargeant, Richard Thick, Paulina Watson and Fran Wilson.

At the other end of the spectrum and doing less well were Cllr Belinda Watson, who managed to get to only 25% of the meetings that she should have attended, Dennis Collins (30%), Christine Edwards-Daem and Steve Munford (both on 50%), and Nikki Fissenden (58%).

Of course, even this does not give the full picture.

Former council leader Chris Garland has achieved that 100% golden attendance, but that is because he is not a member of any of the council’s supporting committees and so he only had to attend four meetings.

If we look at the total number of meetings that each councillor attended during that period, we find that the five top performing councillors were Council Leader Annabelle Blackmore and Clive English, both on 27 meetings, followed by Derek Butler (24), Eddie Powell (23) and Fay Gooch (22).

Those attending the fewest meetings were Belinda Watson (2), Dennis Collins (3), Richard Thick and Christopher Garland (both on 4) and Janetta Sams (5).

Cllr Collins has been ill with septicaemia. He spent three weeks in hospital and is still convalescing.

Cllr Thick is the Mayor this year - a non-political role - and as such only attends full council meetings: however, he is very busy representing the council at numerous events every week.

There is a third way to look at the attendance, and that is to see how many extra meetings the councillors have attended beyond those they were expected to attend - usually such attendances will be because they have gone along to speak up for their constituents on a specific issue.

During this time period, Annabelle Blackmore attended eight additional meetings; Gordon Newton, Martin Round and Steve McLoughlin all did an extra five, and Fay Gouch four.

Fourteen councillors did no extra.

One aspect that emerges is that the individual councillor’s party affiliation plays almost no bearing. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Ukip and Independents all have representatives among the top brackets and in the lower orders.

At the top, Annabelle Blackmore is Conservative, Clive English Lib Dem, Eddie Powell Ukip and Fay Gooch Independent.

At the other end, Belinda Watson is Lib Dem, Christopher Garland Conservative, Christine Edwards-Daem Ukip and Steve Munford Independent.

The Labour party has only two representatives on the council: Cllrs Paul Harper and Malcolm McKay. Both managed to stay away from either extreme in the attendance chart.