Councillor claims officers 'wield too much power'

Two events happened in Norfolk this week which may, just may, be a pointer to things to come.

First of all, a high profile UKIP councillor resigned. Stan Hebborn was deputy leader of the party at County Hall. He's decided to stand down because he's become disillusioned with politics.

"I've lost faith in my party and the way things are done at County Hall," he told us.

He complains about council officers who earn too much money, he thinks they spend too much on consultants and believes they wield too much power.

He is also worried the UKIP group goes along with officers' decisions too often and doesn't challenging them enough.

"One of the aspirations we had when we were elected was that we would be able to challenge the fat cat salaries at County Hall and that has not happened," he said.

Mr Hebborn was one of the 2013 intake of dozens of councillors across the country that hit the headlines.

The party took 15 seats in Norfolk to deprive the Conservatives of power on the county council.

Mr Hebborn never expected to win but threw himself into his new job and impressed journalists and fellow councillors with his enthusiasm and tenacity.

Life in local government can be frustrating, council officers may be highly paid and sometimes cautious but they play an important role in guiding councillors into making legally safe and viable decisions.

Mr Hebborn's resignation comes just weeks after two councillors on Great Yarmouth Borough Council decided to sit as independents following an internal party row.

There have also been falling outs within the local parties in Tendring and Basildon in Essex.

UKIP's critics always questioned if the party's inexperienced councillors could stay the course in local government. Are we now seeing signs that some of them can't?

The second interesting development was the Loddon by-election. The Conservatives held on to the seat very comfortably, which was not a surprise, but it was very interesting to see how the other parties fared.

It's worth stressing this is just one council by-election and fewer than 2,000 people voted (compared to 5,500 when the seat was last contested in May).

But the Labour share of the vote was down by almost the same amount as the Liberal Democrat vote was up (around 8%). Is it possible the Lib Dems have picked up votes at the expense of Labour?

And, there were only two votes in it, but the Lib Dems beat UKIP. It's not very often that we've been able to say that.

The Conservative share of the vote was up by 4%, UKIP's share of the vote was down by almost the same amount.

It is just one by election and just one resignation but we will see whether anything can be drawn from it in the longer term.

Mr Hebborn's resignation means there'll now be another by-election in Watton.

That will be worth watching not just to see what happens to the individual parties but if the Conservatives can win it back they'd be within touching distance of taking back control of the council.