A Southport councillor who defected to the Labour Party last year is a councillor no longer.
Doctor Bill Welsh who in the New Year announced that he had enough of being on Sefton Council, ceased to serve residents in Southport’s Norwood Ward on 13th March. But Sefton Council has not bothered to officially tell the people of High Park and Blowick that they are now short of a Councillor. Councillor Welsh’s seat will be filled in a ‘double-headed’ election in Southport’s Norwood Ward in May together with the seat left vacant by his wife Marianne, who is retiring normally from the Council after eight years’ local service.
The official silence about Councillor Welsh’s departure mirrors last year’s disappearance of Councillor Andy Dams who Labour replaced with a left winger in \Crosby when he was nearing his re-election time. There is considerable disquiet in Labour ranks nationwide as scores of useful busy councillors are one by one being deselected or feeling forced out because their face does not fit with the Momentum crowd who now dominate the Labour Party in many parts of the country.
This situation is very embarrassing for the Sefton Labour bosses who are trying to hold together councillors varying from left wing socialists to the former Leader of the local Conservatives. Andy Dams’ resignation was never announced to Sefton Council nor did he receive the traditional thanks at the beginning of the Council meeting when he departed. As far as Labour went, it was as though Councillor Dams had never existed. It was left to other councillors to place on the record the council’s appreciation of the Councillor who had done sterling work as Vice Chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee as well as his ward work in Crosby.
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