By-election date set to replace youngest-ever Hunts councillor

A HUNTINGDONSHIRE District Council by-election will take place on October 29. The poll, in Huntingdon s North Ward, was prompted by the resignation over the Bank Holiday weekend of the district s youngest-ever councillor, Liberal Democrat Sam Kemp, who wa

A HUNTINGDONSHIRE District Council by-election will take place on October 29.

The poll, in Huntingdon's North Ward, was prompted by the resignation over the Bank Holiday weekend of the district's youngest-ever councillor, Liberal Democrat Sam Kemp, who was just 19 when first elected in May 2007.

Six months ago she moved out of Huntingdon North to live in St Ives and came to believe she could no longer represent her constituents, she told HDC chief executive David Monks in her resignation letter.

Miss Kemp, now 22, who works for Anglian Water, told The Hunts Post: "I found that, living in St Ives, I was no longer part of Huntingdon North, and it was hard for my constituents to contact me when they could no longer just knock on the door. It wasn't fair on them."

Mr Monks told a meeting of the full council on Wednesday that the by-election to fill the seat until May 2011, the balance of Ms Kemp's term, would be held on Thursday October 29, "if necessary". [It will be, since this is territory hotly disputed between the Conservative and Lib Dems.]

Lib Dem leader Councillor Peter Downes paid tribute to Ms Kemp's work, adding that it had been hard for her to operate in a council 'dominated by old men'.