Councillor quits Ashfield Independents amid spat over authority being 'brought to disrepute'

Coun Kier Barsby, who represents Sutton St Mary’s, will now sit as an unaligned independent member.

Coun Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind), council leader, said Coun Barsby was removed from the group ‘for his dalliances with the Reform Party and for failure to abide by our internal group principles’.

However, Coun Barsby told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he had put in his resignation as he believes the authority was being ‘brought into disrepute’ by its deputy leader, Coun Tom Hollis (Ash Ind), who has a number of court convictions.

And Coun Barsby insisted he has no plans to join Reform.

He said: “I refute everything Coun Zadrozny is saying.

“Before Christmas a certain councillor pleaded guilty to yet another misdemeanour.

"I am not prepared to sit in a group and not say anything and make it seem like people condone him.

“I’m sick and tired of social media branding us all criminals.

“He has not only brought the group into disrepute, but also council officers and I feel for them.

“Before Christmas I called the leader to have a conversation with him, and my question to him was ‘now that this councillor was found guilty, what was your intention?’

"His (Coun Zadrozny’s) reply was that he was a ‘hard-working councillor’.

“My resignation went in and he then made it so I was sacked in an email to group members.”

Coun Barsby said he had prepared three motions to table at a council meeting calling for the sacking of Coun Hollis, as well as a vote of no confidence for Coun Hollis, the leader and his cabinet.

To help get the motion across the line he sought the backing from the Reform members on the authority.

Coun Zadrozny told the LDRS: “Coun Barsby was removed from the group for his dalliances with the Reform party and for failure to abide by our internal group principles, which include attendance at meetings and workload for constituents.

“His work fell so far below par that, sadly, he has pretended that his expulsion from our group was his own choice and is, frankly, lying about his removal in an attempt to distract from his own failures.

“He has let down our group and the residents who elected him and that’s why he was expelled from us, in a similar way that he way previously expelled from the Labour Party.

"In hindsight, we should have listened to them when they warned us about his disastrously lacklustre work attitude.”

The spat comes after Coun Hollis, who represents Huthwaite & Brierley, admitted three counts of being the owner of dogs that were dangerously out of control at a Mansfield Magistrates’ Court hearing in June last year.

He also pleaded guilty to a fourth charge of obstructing a police officer at his home address in January the same year.

His earlier convictions include one for careless driving in September 2022, a day after being found guilty for harassing his neighbours without violence in lockdown during the pandemic.

After those convictions, he was removed as deputy leader by Coun Zadrozny, who said at the time his deputy’s position was ‘no longer tenable’.

However, Coun Hollis was reappointed following the group’s landslide 32-seat local election victory in May 2023.

Coun Hollis was also fined for failing to declare a financial interest at a hearing at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court in February 2024.

A number of petitions have also been set up calling for his resignation.