A Conservative councillor has “finally done the right thing” by resigning, a Labour counterpart has said.
Sara Pritchard has confirmed she is standing down from representing the Leomansley ward on Lichfield City Council.
An email to councillors from the town clerk said she had taken the decision due to work and personal circumstances.
But Labour group leader at the city council, Cllr Dave Robertson, said the Conservative councillor had jumped before she was pushed.
“I’m glad that Cllr Pritchard has finally done the the right thing and resigned from the council.
“However, I’m sure the public won’t be fooled by the timing of this, given it is less than a week until she would have been disqualified from the council due to non-attendance.”
Cllr Dave Robertson, Lichfield City Council
There will be no immediate replacement, however, with the seat set to remain vacant until the local elections in May.
Cllr Robertson said:
“It is very disappointing to see that it has taken so long to get here, that now the people of Leomansley won’t get a chance to elect a replacement.
“Given that Cllr Pritchard has attended only one meeting of a committee since January, she could have done the right thing months ago, but she has chosen not to and her Conservative colleagues have allowed this to go on and on.”
Cllr Dave Robertson, Lichfield City Council
Very much a case of party before serving the public.
Are you really surprised?
Useless council looking after themselves first.
Can we PLEASE have someone who will get our disabled parking back !!!!
Another Conservative at the younger end of the spectrum and female walks. More or less says it all about the state of the local Tory party. One can hardly blame her for not wanting to waste her time on this irrelevant third tier of local government. One can only hope when Labour win in 16 months nationally they move to legislate and abolish DCs and below, in order to implement the unitary model.