Long-standing Shropshire councillor steps down from politics after election loss
A former councillor who has served in Telford & Wrekin for 32 years is quitting politics after losing his seat in last week’s local election.
Boundary changes ahead of the local authority elections resulted in two two-member wards being changed into four single-member positions in Newport.
Conservative councillor Eric Carter went head-to-head with Liberal Democrat Thomas Janke in the Newport South ward, with the latter being re-elected after gaining 103 more votes.
Along with being a county councillor. Mr Carter was chairman of the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority and regularly attended meetings in London to discuss national fire service-related matters – but has had to relinquish that position.
Mr Carter said that the boundary changes had gone back to how they were when he was first elected on to Telford & Wrekin Council in 1991 – but the population of the constituencies was now very different.
“The big difference made to me in the south ward is over the last three or four years we’ve had an awful lot of new buildings taking place,” said Mr Carter.
