ONCE prominent Hexham Liberal Democrat Derek Kennedy has quit the party as he bids to regain his seat on Northumberland County Council.

He is standing as an independent in next month’s Hexham West by-election following the recent resignation of Tory councillor Colin Cessford from his seats on both Northumberland County Council and Hexham Town Council.

Coun. Kennedy, who held the seat as a Lib Dem between 2005 and 2013 said: “I have never been a real party political person; all my campaigns have been about Hexham and its locality.

“In 2001 I started the anti-McDonalds in Wentworth campaign as a local resident.

“I was never involved in politics before, but when I got elected I was shepherded into a political party and told that’s how it works.”

He will play his part in one of the most interesting by-elections in recent times.

Also throwing her hat into the ring as an independent is Oakwood’s Anne Pickering, who spearheaded the high profile campaign to retain Hexham bus station in its present location, rather than being switched to the Loosing Hill car park .

While that campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, she succeeded in gathering a 10,000-name petition against the scheme and gained much popular support.

Independents hold the balance of power at County Hall, with the minority Labour administration relying on their support to out-vote the opposition.

In recent years, the seat has see-sawed between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

Hoping to retain the seat for the Tories is town councillor Tom Gillanders, a retired engineer who recently stepped down as a lieutenant colonel after serving in the Territorial Army for over 40 years.

Coun. Gillanders has been the Poppy Appeal organiser for Hexham and District for several years, and currently chairs the town council committee responsible for Hexham’s Christmas lights, Remembrance Day parades and other community projects.

Standing for Labour is another town councillor, former Hexham GP Dr Nuala Rose, who is the only woman in the field.

She narrowly missed out on the party’s nomination for the Hexham seat in last year’s General Election.

The by-election was actually called by the Green Party, whose candidate is Lee Williscroft-Ferris, the man who did fight the Hexham seat for the Greens in 2015, polling a respectable 2,445 votes.

Nominations did not close until yesterday, but at the time of writing, the Lib Dems were still considering whether to field a candidate in their former seat.

Mr Williscroft-Ferris is the only candidate who is also seeking a seat on the town council, where voting is expected to take place on the same day as the county council seat, on February 4.

Councillors Gillanders, Kennedy and Rose are already members of the town council, and Dr Pickering is ineligible for the town council as she does not live within the parish.

It was expected however, that candidates would come forward from the political parties before nominations closed yesterday.

The only name in the frame so far is that of Michael Allan, of Pudding Mews, who is the official Conservative candidate.