Mayor hits out in gossip row

A FORMER Uckfield town councillor has called on the mayor, Mike Skinner, to come clean on whether he intends to quit the town for a new job.

Val Frost, of Lashbrooks Road, urged Cllr Skinner to clarify the situation whether he was intending a move to Hereford.

Cllr Skinner s response was the curt: Stay out of my business. But he did admit he had applied for a job in Herefordshire and for a number of other jobs elsewhere.

The clash is the latest development in alleged malicious gossip about Cllr Skinner, as reported in the Sussex Express.

The former Uckfield county councillor he was ousted by Conservative Chris Dowling in the June 7 elections claimed that rumour-mongers were behind untrue gossip relating to drink-driving, bankruptcy and a marriage break-up.

He also talked of a valedictory speech given by a member of the public Mrs Frost at the last meeting of the full council in July.

Mrs Frost, a councillor from 1995 to 1999, said: I am the member of the public referred to in the article of August 17, when the mayor of Uckfield claimed malicious gossip abounded about him in the town.

As Mike will know, I do not deal in gossip, I deal only in facts. I came to the last full council meeting not as a result of having heard an unsubstantiated rumour that he was going to stand down as mayor before the end of his current term, but only to speak as a result of Mike s letter in the Sussex Express, dated June 29. He stated in the letter that: It is time to move on, I have no intention of representing Uckfield at any level after my current terms of office end in 2003.

My statement was not meant to be a valediction, but was carefully worded to reflect what I believe are the results of his actions during his terms of office.

I hope that he will now soon clarify the situation to his fellow council members, and to the residents of Uckfield, as to whether he is remaining a resident of this town until 2003, as I understand that his house has been sold in preparation for his new job in Hereford.

Cllr Skinner said: I don t see why my private life seems to be open to rumour and innuendo. Who do these people think they are?

It s got nothing to do with her. I had a contract with the people of Uckfield when I was county councillor but that contract came to an end on June 7. I didn t break the contract, the electorate did.

I enjoyed my time as county councillor, but I owe the people of Uckfield nothing. I ceased to be Uckfield s equivalent of Neil Hamilton on June 7.

He added: I did apply for a job and didn t get it and I have applied for a number of jobs elsewhere. The job was actually in Leominster, not Hereford.

Mr Skinner, who is still a district and town councillor, admitted that if he did get a job elsewhere he would not necessarily be able to complete his terms of office.

In a last barb at Mrs Frost, Cllr Skinner said: I will give a full and frank account of my private life if Mrs Frost tells us what she did on Bank Holiday Monday.