A COUNCILLOR has been criticised for living at her Greek island holiday home for part of the year while still claiming her council allowance.

Conservative Pamela Tomlinson last attended a South Oxfordshire District Council meeting five months ago, but has continued to claim her basic £2,900-a-year allowance, paid to all councillors.

She said she was still able to work on ward issues from Greece and that her offer to resign her seat had been rejected because the council’s leader did not want to call a by-election.

However, Clifton Hampden Parish Council has complained to district council chief executive David Buckle, claiming residents rarely saw Mrs Tomlinson.

Parish council chairman Chris Dupond said Mrs Tomlinson, who representes Sandford ward, rarely attended their meetings to represent the district council.

Berinsfield district councillor John Cotton has been appearing in her place.

Mr Dupond said: “The parish council has been pretty horrified, and we think it’s quite wrong. We have been dissatisfied for a long time.

“Our meetings were rarely attended, or she used to turn up and read the district council newsletter to us.

“The whole thing has been totally unacceptable.”

Mrs Tomlinson said she had sold her house in Clifton Hampden in May but had another property in Oxfordshire.

She inisisted she was still performing her council duties and spent “less than half” her time abroad.

She said last Wednesday: “It’s a holiday home. Nobody would want to live on a small Greek island full-time.

“I’m still a member of South Oxfordshire District Council, I’m attending a group meeting tomorrow and had meetings in Wallingford and Reading today.

“Yes, I have got a place in Greece, and I have spent some time there over the summer, but it’s quite easy to deal with things by email and I have had another district councillor covering parish council meetings when I have not been there.”

She added that she had offered to resign – but was turned down by the council’s Conservative leader Ann Ducker.

Mrs Ducker said: “She did offer to resign, but because of the timing, we felt that to go to a by-election at this stage was really a waste of money when we have elections coming up in May next year and there’s an alternative way of covering any issues raised by local people.”