Newhaven councillor withdraws from council’s cross-party alliance

Last summer a coalition of Greens, Lib Dems, Labour and independent councillors joined together to take control of Lewes District Council from the Conservatives several months after May’s election.

Independent Steve Saunders, who represents Newhaven North, announced his withdrawal from the Co-operative Alliance.

The grouping still has enough seats to stay in administration.

He spent more than a decade as a Lib Dem councillor before leaving the party in 2018 and successfully regaining his seats on both district and town councils last year.

Mr Saunders said: “I had hoped that the parties could work together and put politics aside, in order to properly represent the residents and constructively approach the challenges that lay ahead.

“In the early months that was the case, but as time has gone on, I have become frustrated by a resurgence of political motives from certain individuals within the group, which have begun to affect the way the administration is functioning.”

He suggested the upcoming county council elections, planned for May 2021, were beginning to have a political influence on the functioning of all local authorities, with Lewes being no exception.

He said he would support any proposals at both district and town level which he considered would have a positive effect for residents and businesses.

He added: “The problems we all face, through the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, are a real threat to our communities’ futures. We must be proactive in our response to the challenges ahead and ensure we put ourselves in a strong position to meet them head on.”

A spokesperson for the Co-operative Alliance said: “We are grateful to Cllr Saunders’ for his contribution to the Co-operative Alliance in its successful first year. We are clearly all disappointed by his decision but wish him all the best and look forward to working constructively with him in future.

“We remain committed to our priorities as laid out in our corporate plan to deliver more homes, build a more sustainable district responding to the climate emergency and make our council more open and transparent for residents.

“We have achieved so much together in the last year, including our response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and are excited what we want to achieve for residents in the year ahead.”

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.