The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Delete --Anthony.bradbury^"talk" 00:19, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Aidan Burley (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

This is to a very high degree of probability an autobiography. The creator has made a couple of essentially null edits to Nicholas Soames, and apart from that, this article and linking it to his former school and college as "notable alumni" are the sum total of the user's contributions.

Apart from being an autobiography, it also resoundingly fails to establish notability per the biographical notability guideline. The subject is a local councillor, not even leader of his local council. He has twice tried - and failed - to secure a nomination as a parliamentary candidate. He is not even a losing candidate in a parliamentary election, he has never got that far. There is no evidence of non-trivial independent coverage of this person, and nor is there likely to be since local councillors are ten a penny.

The article was tagged for speedy deletion but that was declined as there is some assertion of notability. I am not sure that the claims cited actually count as a credible assertion of notability, I am sure that they fall well sure of establishing notability.

There being no reliable non-trivial independent sources from which we can draw a verifiably neutral biography compliant with our strict policies on living individuals, this article as it stands must be deleted. Cruftbane 20:48, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: I know nothing about British town government. How notable is a borough councillor? Corvus cornix 21:04, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Not very. Slightly less than a County board of supervisors type person, I'd guess. There are 20 or so local authorities in London (and one over-arching authority). He's a member of one of the 20. There does not seem to be consensus on the issue, according to Wikipedia:Deletion policy/Local politicians, though the article talk page notes the Wikipedia guidelines on Biographies: Just being an elected local official does not guarantee notability. --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:25, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

We have only a couple of dozen articles on people who are or were borough councillors, and as far as I can tell almost all of them are either tagged for notability or are known for something else, usually as having gone on to much higher office. Borough councillors are part time local politicians. Cruftbane 21:42, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On searching, we have way more than that. Here's the list of those categorised for Greater London - Category:Councillors in Greater London. --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:45, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Greater London is different, many of them go on to something notable. I looked for "borough councillor", which is what you asked, and that is a lower level again than a London assembly (GLA, former GLC) member. But London assembly members with no other claim to notability should be deleted as well; local councillors are well below the bar of WP:BIO. Cruftbane 21:17, 29 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete. Looking at the edit history of user:Conserve1, I come to the conclusion that what we have here is Mr. Burley himself seeking to assert his own notability. He is, now, one of the Notable alumni of St John's College, Oxford‎, by his own admission... --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:28, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete, way short of WP:BIO. The behavior of Conserve1 (talk · contribs) is out of bounds, but only underscores why WP:COI is a good guideline. --Dhartung | Talk 21:50, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Comment: I've put a ((coi)) tag on the page. Corvus cornix 22:03, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete. The article provides no reliable independent sources to indicate notability, despite being tagged for months as needing them (he's been interviewed by the BBC, but the subject of the report was presumably the rallies rather than Mr. Burley himself). Apparently written to publicise Mr. Burley's political career; note that the article's creator Conserve1 described some legitimate alterations as "socialist vandalism". EALacey 11:48, 28 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete: Local politician - Fails WP:BIO for Politicians. --Sc straker 03:33, 29 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.