Dartmouth's Labour district councillors Ben Cooper could be asked to pay back a proportion of his annual council 'wages' after clocking up the second lowest attendance rate on South Hams Council.

In the year 2012/13 Mr Cooper turned out for only ten of the 16 meetings he could have taken part in at the district council's Follaton House town hall – which works out at a rate of 63 percent.

The district council's rules say that anyone whose attendance rate drops below 65 percent is liable to be asked to pay back a proportion of the allowances that all 44 councillors are entitled to claim.

The only other councillor who fared worse than Mr Cooper was Bickleigh and Shaugh's Conservative councillor Carolyn Bruce-Spencer who only made 16 out of 28 possible meeting – and attendance rate of 57 per cent.

Mr Cooper, who represents the Dartmouth Townstal ward is South Hams Council's only Labour representative and the youngest on the district council line up.

He said that no one had yet asked him to hand back any of his attendance allowance cash but added: 'If they do it's fair enough.'

Mr Cooper, who works full time at a town centre café in Dartmouth, has already come under fire from town councillors who criticised him for not showing up at their monthly town council meetings to tell them what has been happening at Follaton House.

He said of his district council attendances: 'For a young person in full time work it is difficult to get to every meeting.'

In the year 2011/12 Mr Cooper did much better and managed an 85 percent attendance rate.

He went on: 'I read all the minutes and try to attend every meeting and if I can't I try to send my apologies.'

He said that this summer he had had to travel to London for three months while he was employed doing consultancy work.

'I came back for full council meetings but missed quite a few committees. I kept the council informed and I still had email and telephone so that any person in my ward could contact me.

Just eight out of the 44 district councillors actually achieved a 100 percent attendance rate – compared to ten the previous year.

They were Salcombe and Malborough's Paul Coulson, Totnes' Alan Gorman, Erme Valley's Tom Holway, Ivybridge's Mike Saltern, Brixton and Wembury's John Squire, Avon and Harbourne's Robert Steer, West Dart councillor and council leader John Tucker and Westville and Alvington's Simon Wright.

The full list of council attendances was due to be discussed by the district council's Corporate Performance and Resources Scrutiny Panel yesterday .

And it could have been the last time the council looked at the figures as the council committee considered whether South Hams Council should scrap publishing attendance statistics in the future.

And they also looked at whether they wanted the council to continue to impose sanctions on councillors who do not show up at enough meetings.

A report to the councillors pointed out that the 65 per cent attendance rate threshold had been imposed by the old council Standards Committee which was disbanded when the new local government code of conduct rules came into force last year.

The report explained: 'The appropriateness of Scrutiny Panel Members now considering these statistics and potentially requesting that their colleagues return a proportion of their Basic Allowance is questionable.

'However, it is also acknowledged that there is an increased drive and emphasis upon elected member performance, transparency and openness.

'Whilst it is recognised that these statistics are a limited barometer of member performance,for example, they do not take account of member casework within their wards or that some members may be in full-time employment or have carer responsibilities, they may nonetheless be of interest to some residents.

'On balance, it is therefore suggested that the practice of annually reporting the attendance statistics formally to the scrutiny panel should be discontinued, but that the statistics should continue to be published in full on the council's website for the availability of public inspection and consideration.'