COMMENT: Ten councillors not restanding with all Horsham District Council seats up for grabs

Sussex Decides 2015 General Election SUS-150226-125523001

All 44 seats at Horsham District Council will be up for grabs when voters head to the polls on Thursday May 7.

Currently the Conservatives have a large majority with 32, compared to seven for the Lib Dems, four independents and one UKIP councillor.

Cabinet members Sue Rogers (Con, Steyning) and Roger Paterson (Con, Pulborough and Coldwaltham) are not restanding, as are three independents Jim Rae (Holbrook East), Sheila Matthews (Henfield), and George Cockman (Steyning).

David Holmes (LDem, Horsham Park) is also standing down, as is Duncan England (Con, Nuthurst), Jim Goddard (Bramber, Upper Beeding and Woodmancote), Adam Breacher (Con, Billingshurst and Shipley), and Laurence Deakins (Con, Denne).

In Roffey North Conservative deputy leader at HDC Helena Croft was deselected as a candidate by the Horsham Conservative Party, but adopted as a candidate for Henfield by the Arundel and South Downs Association, while the other councillor in Roffey North Lib Dem David Skipp will stand in Horsham Park instead this year.

Roger Arthur (Chanctonbury), the former Tory deputy leader at HDC, who defected to UKIP in early 2013 will stand in Roffey South this year alongside standing as a parliamentary candidate in Horsham.

Mrs Rogers, HDC’s cabinet member for a safer and healthier district, said: “It has been an honour to represent the people of Steyning and Ashurst for the past four years.