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New councillor snubbed over HAWP membership

Monday, 10th March 2014.

Haverhill's newest St Edmundsbury borough councillor Tony Brown says he is disappointed not to have been appointed to the council's Haverhill Area Working Party as his predecessor was.

Cllr Tony Brown, who has attended several HAWP meetings as a member of the public prior to his election, said he had hoped to make it more representative of local people's views.

He won a by-election in January, occasioned by the death of Cllr Les Ager, becoming the council's first elected UKIP member and thought he would replace Cllr Ager on HAWP.

But the borough's Conservative administration has appointed Cllr Dorothy Whittaker, who represents Hundon, but who has moved since the last election and now lives 40 niles from Haverhill.

Cllr Brown said he had never seen Cllr Mrs Whittaker at a HAWP meeting.

Cllr Brown said: "I specifically asked the borough if I could sit on this working party as I wanted to get the townspeople's voice heard and also try to make it more representative of our views and hopefully re-invigorate it.

"I feel very disappointed about this decision to say the least. It's not about political balance either as the Conservatives have a massive majority on the working party anyway."

A spokesperson for the borough council said: "“There was a Conservative vacancy caused by the death of Les Ager. This has been filled by Cllr Dorothy Whittaker as she was already a substitute and has a ward near Haverhill (this was a Conservative Group nomination).

"There was no requirement to recalculate political balance after Cllr Tony Brown was elected, but political balance will be recalculated for the annual meeting on May 15, as this is a legal obligation.

"This may result in a seat on HAWP being allocated to someone other than a Conservative.”



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