A BY-ELECTION is to be held after a councillor who came under-fire over her falling attendance record resigned this week.
Councillor Anita Cherryholme has resigned from her Old Town ward seat just two weeks after she told the Chronicle she would be ‘evaluating her position’ following criticism for failing to attend the majority of council meetings since she opened her own businesses a few months ago.
She said she had attended as many meetings as possible but admitted her attendance record at council meetings had fallen as she struggled to juggle her duties as a councillor with ensuring her new business - a coffee bar at South Elmsall - was a success.
Council figures showed her attendance record had dropped to 21 per cent - she had attended just three of the 14 meetings she had been due to attend in the previous six months.
However councillors need attend just two meetings a year to comply with the law, so she was under no obligation to quit.
This week she told the Chronicle she had been hoping to carry on in both roles, but that the article two weeks ago had hurried her decision and she was confident she was now doing the right thing by stepping down.
“It has been a difficult decision to make,” she said. “I thought long and hard about it and I really couldn’t see things getting easier.
“It is the right thing. I hope I can come back one day, but if I do I want to come back in the right way. I don’t want to be there in the council chamber feeling like people think I shouldn’t be there.
“I am so grateful for the support I have received, I have made a lot of good friends on the council and in the ward, and I have really enjoyed being a councillor.”
Leader of Barnsley Council Sir Steve Houghton said she had done the right thing in the circumstances.
“Anita didn’t have to do this, so credit must go to her for stepping aside.
“I am sorry to lose a hardworking member, because she really was. She’s worked very hard in her own ward, and she’s been a good member of the council.
“But given the pressure she is under, her business and her livelihood has to come first. In that context and in those circumstances, she has done the right thing, as she always has.
“One day hopefully when things are more settled she will have the opportunity to perhaps stand for election again. She would be welcome back if circumstances allow.
“We wish her all the best for the future.”
Coun Cherryholme was first elected in May 2011, and had been due for re-election at the next local elections next May. But following her resignation there will now be a by-election in the Old Town Ward on Thursday July 12.
The deadline for registering to vote is Tuesday June 26 and the deadline to apply for a postal vote is Wednesday June 27.
