Two resignations hit Littlehampton council ahead of meeting

Group leader Alan Gammon quit his post, although he is staying on as a councillor, but Roy Scrivener has resigned as River ward councillor, a move which is likely to force a second by-election in the ward in less than a year.

The resignations came in the wake of a community resources committee meeting two weeks ago, when Conservatives appeared to take a U-turn and voted with other councillors to keep the show and fun day together in September, having previously voted to move the date to August, and possibly split the event up.

Just two Tories, Mr Scrivener and Wick with Toddington councillor June Caffyn, voted against the recommendation to tonight’s full council meeting to keep the event united.

Mr Gammon said he had stood down as group leader to make time to do other things in the community and insisted it was nothing to do with the controversy surrounding the town show.

Mr Scrivener told the Gazette yesterday (Wednesday) he quit because of new regulations forcing councillors to declare their, and their partner’s, interests.

“In that situation, I find that I’m not able to fulfil the requirements of the Localism Act, so I have had no alternative but to withdraw.

“I was told that if this form didn’t go through, I would not be able to sit in council meetings and vote.”

The legislation allows councillors to redact – conceal or withhold – “sensitive” information, but if the form setting out their interest was heavily redacted, said Mr Scrivener, it would be scrutinised by a monitoring officer at Arun District Council.

“I’m not prepared to do that,” he said. “It’s exceedingly sensitive information.”

He was elected as a River ward councillor in December last year, after another Conservative, John Charles, had to resign when it was established he was living outside the three-mile limit for town councillors.

Labour and Liberal-Democrat town councillors have criticised Mr Scrivener for causing the expense of another by-election – at a cost of around £6,000 – so soon after he was elected.

Lib-Dem Dr James Walsh said: “It’s disgraceful that he has wasted public money by standing in a by-election, which he won by only a few votes in December, and now resigning, only nine months later, when all he has done while he was on the council was call for cuts in nearly everything.

“Yet now he is prepared to waste more public money by having another by-election.”

Labour’s Mike Northeast said: “As a councillor, Mr Scrivener was one of those driving the cuts to the funding for the town show, but now, only nine months after being elected, he is resigning and costing the council another £6,000.”

Town councillor Joyce Bowyer, who was previously leader of the Conservatives, said a group meeting was due to take place last night (Wednesday) to discuss a new leader and the way forward for the group. She now accepted it was right to keep the show and fun day together.