Seven Rothwell councillors resign over traveller site row

Cedwien Brown and Joseph Smyth, members of North Northamptonshire Council, resigned from the Conservative Party

Seven councillors have resigned from the Conservative Party in a row over plans for a travellers' site.

All are members of Rothwell Town Council and two of them also sit on North Northamptonshire Council (NNC).

In a joint resignation letter, they said they were "fed up with being ignored" and it was "embarrassing to admit we represent the Conservative Party".

The leader of NNC said their resignations were "very disappointing".

The group, who now sit on the councils as independents, have taken issue with NNC's decision to include in its budget £1.3m for a temporary traveller stopping site by junction three of the A14.

They said the ruling Conservative group on NNC "are determined to destroy the green space at junction three of the A14 that Rothwell Town Council have been working to enhance, both for the benefit of biodiversity and the community at large for a number of years".

The NNC councillors, Cedwien Brown and Joseph Smyth, have already rebelled against the proposal in a council meeting.

People gathered earlier this month to protest against the proposed temporary travellers' site

The councillors say they have a number of other grievances, including the siting of an electric vehicle (EV) charging point in the town.

Their letter to their local Conservative says: "The site, which has been imposed on us, will seriously impact our historic Annual Rowell Fair, a Royal Charter fair granted to the town in 1204 by King John and celebrating its 820th year this year.

"Despite the town council offering three other far more suitable sites for these EV charging points, no response has been given to our town clerk or our lord of the manor, and no guarantee that further EV charging points will not be added to the area in the future."

They end their letter saying they are "fed up" with being ignored and added: "If you add in all the recurring events amongst the Conservative MPs in Parliament, we find it embarrassing to admit that we represent the Conservative Party."

Jason Smithers, the NNC leader, said he was planning to have a conversation with the councillors

Jason Smithers, the conservative leader of NNC, said it was "very disappointing they feel the need to resign".

"I was planning to have a conversation with the two councillors. They've jumped before they were pushed. I would say to them you were elected as a Conservative; resign and let's have a by-election. It's only the right thing to do," said Mr Smithers.