River: Bill Esterson MP resigns as ward councillor

Bill Esterson MP, a long-standing councillor for Medway Council’s River Ward, has resigned from the council after moving to his new constituency.

Alan W Collins has learned that the newly-elected Member of Parliament for Sefton Central, in Merseyside, has stood down and will not manage his ward via casework his BlackBerry, as had previously suggested.

The Labour Councillor has been a member of Medway Council since its creation, representing River Ward and, previously, Town Ward, which became part of the new River Ward during the boundary review.

He served with fellow Labour Mark Jones from 2003, but Mr Jones lost his seat to Conservative Craig MacKinlay in 2007, and is now to stand in Strood South in 2011, according to selections revealed by activist Tristan Osborne.

Mr Esterson’s resignation means that a member of the authority has resigned every year between the last full local elections in 2007 and the next full local elections next May, after John Ward in 2008 and Dennis MacFarlane in 2009.

According to Mr Osborne, Labour’s candidate for the subsequent by-election will be John Jones, who stood for Labour in Strood North in 2007 with Mr Osborne and Cllr Stephen Hubbard.

Alan W Collins will be following the by-election, the timetable of which is yet to be set, and will be providing an “Opinion” article on the resignation later on today.