BNP man's fury at council move

| Monday, 20 November 2006 Source: Mirfield Today

MIRFIELD Town Council's only British National Party representative has been kicked out after not attending a council meeting for six months.

At the full town council meeting this week, Mayor of Mirfield Coun Kath Taylor said because Roger Roberts (pictured right), who is also a Kirklees councillor for Heckmondwike, had failed to attend any of the council meetings he was automatically excluded.

The position will not be filled until next year's local election as the election office would not be able to call a by-election in time.

Coun John Nottingham said: "It's very irresponsible of him not to attend the meetings after all the bad publicity there has been."

But Coun Roberts claims he resigned from Mirfield Town Council more than three months ago.

He said: "I sent a letter of resignation three to four months ago. There is a log of this on my computer. It was around the time they were having all the problems with the secretary.

"They confirmed it had been received. There were the three booted out before me, so the egg's on their face not mine."

Coun Roberts said he resigned from the town council because he was unable to attend the weekly meetings because of his case work in Heckmondwike.

Fellow Heckmondwike BNP councillor David Exley said he thought that Coun Taylor's actions were politically motivated.

He said: "I am very cross with Coun Taylor for doing what she's done. She was fully aware that Roger resigned. It's even been spoken about at Kirklees full council meeting."

But Coun Taylor said she knew nothing about Coun Roberts resignation and had never received a letter from him on the matter.

She said: "If he had put his resignation in we would have dealt with it then and I wouldn't have spent time ploughing through all the minutes to check he definitely wasn't there."

When Coun Roberts, of Moorside Avenue, Dewsbury Moor, was elected as a Tory councillor in the Hopton ward in January 2003 he was the only candidate to stand.

The following year he defected to the BNP and since then has attended a town council meeting every six months, until now.