After receiving criticism for relocating 250 miles away from her constituency, a councillor from the Liberal Democrats resigned.
Following complaints from conservatives and Fareham, Hampshire citizens who disapproved of her move to Liverpool, Jean Kelly resigned from her office.
The Fareham Borough Council’s Tory leader estimates that the by-election to replace her would cost the council and taxpayers “many thousands of pounds.”
According to a Lib Dem official, Mrs. Kelly’s retirement was “long planned to coincide with the summer holiday.”
This would “minimise any interruption to the council” during its annual vacation in August, according to party leaders.
The Tories say they have a candidate who is local, “someone on the spot to get things done, who works all year round, and doesn’t simply emerge at election time,” but it is unclear who will take the councilor’s seat.
The Daily Echo reported that Mrs. Kelly resigned from the Fareham Borough Council on Saturday and that her departure was publicised on Sunday.
Just a few days before, her detractors said that Fareham people were ‘understandably outraged’ since she had relocated 250 miles away.
The council member was encouraged to resign in a statement from the Conservatives titled “Portchester Deserves Better.”
According to a statement from The Times, “the Lib Dem councillor for Portchester’s real residence is nearly 250 miles away, adding to a long line of disappointments from the party who continue to make huge promises at election time but never deliver.”
Residents of Portchester “will be understandably incensed and disappointed by this latest neglect of duty.”
Harry Davis, the head of the Portchester Conservatives, expressed the same worries expressed in the letter and questioned how she could “understand or keep up with” the ‘specific’ difficulties facing the hamlet. It was “time for a shift and a new start,” he said.
However, the Liberal Democrats emphasised that Mrs. Kelly’s “commitment remains unshakeable” in spite of the attacks.
Following their election in May, the party said that “she has successfully enabled three new Lib Dem Councillors to become completely effective representatives.”
In her many years as a party member, she has skillfully advocated the interests of the residents of Portchester.
“Jean is actively assisting with neighbourhood concerns and has not missed any of her council deadlines.”
The party’s rhetoric has now altered, with claims that her retirement was “long planned.”
A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats informed The Southern Daily Echo that “Jean’s retirement, after years of service to the community, was long planned to coincide with the end of the summer vacation to minimise any disturbance to the council during the annual August holidays.”
In order to cause the Council as little disruption as possible, her resignation letter was placed with the party for submission today.
On October 20, a by-election will be conducted to choose her successor.
Sean Woodward, the Tory leader of Fareham Borough Council, criticised Mrs. Kelly’s departure and said that it would have been more cost-effective for her to quit in April.
He told the newspaper, “If she had quit in April, the by-election would have been conducted on election day at very little expense.”
The council and Fareham taxpayers have already paid her hundreds of pounds as a result of her activities.
The fine people of Portchester East will now have the chance to choose a diligent councillor rather than one who is still in the north, said Woodward.