Update: Labour loses overall control of Ashfield District Council, leader vows she will not quit

Labour have now lost eight councillors in just four weeks, including a former council Leader.

Tim Brown (ADC Portfolio Holder for the Environment) and Amanda Brown (Cabinet Member for Health and Well Being) are the most senior councillors to resign this week and are now listed as Independent councillors.

In the past few weeks, Councillors Chris Baron, former Labour Leader of the Council and Lee Anderson joined the Conservatives. Councillors Steve Carroll, Helen Hollis, Glenys Maxwell Joanne Donnelly have left Labour to become Independents.

Huthwaite Councillor Glenys Maxwell said she had resigned from Labour to become a non-alligned independent for her “own peace of mind.”

She added: “I feel I have done the right thing. I have no arguments with anyone.

“This has nothing to do with politics I just feel I can achieve more on my own.

“I am the same person - I will do exactly the same as I have been doing all this while . I know Huthwaite needed someone - I stood up for this area and I will carry on standing up for it.”

Councillor Jason Zadrozny leader of Ashfield Independents said: “Labour have now lost Eight Councillors and control of Ashfield District Council in just a few weeks. They have completely imploded. There’s no point in blaming internal squabbles, the reality is that the mismanagement of the Council, it’s finances and the bin fiasco are to blame for this.

“I knew this day would come. Indeed, the Ashfield Independents had called an extraordinary meeting of the council in a few weeks time highlighting the fact that under councillor Tim Brown’s tenure as cabinet member for the environment - the Council has wasted £3m shrinking our bins in a botched attempt to increase recycling. Official figures show that recycling has not gone up at all whilst fly tipping had gone up 39 per cent and our district is in the worst condition since it was established as a district council.

“These resignations, the most senior of them all is a reflection on the lamentable record of this council. council leader Councillor Cheryl Butler should now resign as she has to take ultimate responsibility for the dire state of our council.”

Councillor Lee Anderson said: “In the last two months a quarter of Labour group has left . It is not looking good for that many moderate councillors to leave. It shows those normal decent Labour councillors are fed up with the hard left Momentum.”

Leader of the council Cheryl Butler said: “I have been very sorry to receive the resignations from my group over the last few days. All of these councillors have served our party and the residents of Ashfield well and all have their own reasons for making the decision to leave the Labour Party. I wish them well and look forward to working with them in the future

“Despite Mr Zadrozny’s opportunistic calls for my resignation, I have absolutely no intention of standing down as Leader of Ashfield District Council. I am extremely proud to serve as a Labour Councillor in Ashfield, which I have done for the past seven years and as Leader for the past three years.

“Our Council, like many others, is under incredible financial pressure due to massive cuts to funding by the Tories – and yet the Labour run council, under my leadership, has achieved great things for the residents in Ashfield; such as improving the lives of private tenants due to our private landlord licence scheme, building new homes and bringing many empty homes back into use, and improving the look and feel of our high streets through our improvement grants, not to mention the free parking and free swimming we introduced very early on in our tenure and the contributions towards the Remembrance parades welcomed by all. The voters in Ashfield have put their faith in Labour and we will continue to do our best for them.”

The Chad has contacted councillors Hollis and Brown who have resigned from Labour this week.