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Seven Rothwell councillors have quit the Conservatives in protest at a plan to turn a green space into a traveller site.

The two Conservative Rothwell and Mawsley ward councillors on North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) will now be independents and Rothwell Town Council will not be controlled by one party.

In a resignation letter sent to the Kettering Constituency Conservative office this afternoon (Monday), Cllrs Cedwien Brown, Joseph Smyth, Mark Spendlove, Karl Sumpter, Ray Davis, Mark Cox and Chris Fox said they are fed up of being ignored and are embarrassed to admit they represent the Conservatives.

Cllr Cedwien Brown (centre) and Cllr Joseph Smyth (right) are among seven Conservatives to have quit the party. They are pictured here at a protest with Cllr Jim Hakewill, a former Conservative who has been an independent councillor for a number of years.

The letter said: “This has come about as we make a stand against Cllr David Howes and his Conservative colleagues who are determined to destroy the green space at junction 3 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.

“We are also very concerned about the lack of consultation on the siting of EV (electric vehicle) charging points on the Market Square here in Rothwell. 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.

“We are fed up of being ignored.

“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.

“It is a shame that it has come to this, but we feel that there is no alternative.”

Cllr Brown and Cllr Smyth had already rebelled against the inclusion of £1.3m in NNC’s budget for a temporary traveller stopping site by junction 3 of the A14, which Rothwell Town Council wants to become a pocket park instead. Cllr Brown declared it an act of ‘environmental vandalism’.

They both defied the whip to vote for an amendment by fellow Rothwell and Mawsley councillor Jim Hakewill – a former Conservative who is also an independent – to remove it from the council’s capital programme and joined a protest against the plan earlier this month.

NNC say the traveller site plan is not a ‘done deal’ and that it still has to go through a formal planning process.

'We are fed up of being ignored' - Rothwell Tories quit party over traveller site plan