A LEADING councillor has quit his local Conservative association after a row about who represents the party in the forthcoming county council elections.
A LEADING councillor has quit his local Conservative association after a row about who represents the party in the forthcoming county council elections.
Frank Whittle, a Conservative Mid Suffolk district councillor and a Stowmarket town councillor, is angry he will not be fighting for Stowmarket North at the county council elections, despite representing the community on the other authorities.
Instead he said that another candidate, who lives nearly 30 miles away, was selected despite his serving the town and putting in a lot of hard work for the Tories.
Mr Whittle, a retired pub licensee who is married with two children, lives on the Chilton Hall estate in Stowmarket and has served on the district and town council for two years.
He has been very involved with Rethink Disability, undertaken work for the Prince's Trust, is chairman of the licensing committee at the district council where he also serves on the scrutiny committee, economy panel and social policy panel.
Mr Whittle, 71, said yesterday: "I have been a Conservative all my life and I was very annoyed not to be selected to run for the county.
"I have written to my MP, David Ruffley. I have been involved in a lot locally, campaigned on local disabled issues, served on crime reduction, have led the fight for an alcohol ban on the streets in Stowmarket.
"I am very disappointed about the whole thing.''
Mr Whittle will remain as a Conservative district and town council and has joined a different Conservative association within the county.
Keith Myers-Hewitt, who was in charge of the selection committee within the Bury St Edmunds Conservative association at the time, said: "There has got to be a loser.
"He thinks he should have had it, but there was a consensus among the selection committee and we thought a young woman could serve in this post better than he.
"That's all there was to it. We even had an area chairman to oversee everything.
"It was so unbiased. I have been on several selection committees during my political career and sometimes you get people who are not happy.''
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