A prominent councillor who was convicted of drink driving has been deselected by the South Norfolk Conservative Association for the next county council elections, a source has revealed.

A prominent councillor who was convicted of drink driving has been deselected by the South Norfolk Conservative Association for the next county council elections, a source has revealed.

Stella Rice, who represents the Long Stratton area as a county and district councillor, was banned from driving for two years, and given a 12 month supervision order in October last year. She pleaded guilty, appearing before the court under her married name of Tilcock.

It is understood that Alison Thomas, a Conservative district councillor for Stratton, has been adopted by the association to contest the Long Stratton division at the county council elections - set to be held in June.

Christopher Kemp, vice chairman of the South Norfolk Conservative Association, said yesterday that they will not be releasing the names of any of the adopted candidates until the selection process is completed.

'We are working our way through the constituency divisions at the moment. We have had the meeting in respect of the Long Stratton division but the association is not making any official announcement of the identity of candidates until we have completed the exercise. We want to put the names out together to avoid confusion,' he explained.

'Nevertheless, the point I must make is that Stella Rice's constituents won't see this in any way as interrupting her serving them. She will be their county councillor until June this year, and she may well be doing this for another year if the date is extended.'

Prior to the court case, Ms Rice was suspended from the Conservative groups on both local authorities but has since been reinstated.

On Norfolk County Council, she was suspended from her role as deputy cabinet member for adult social services but allowed to continue to serve on the general purposes (regulatory) committee equalities working group, and the children's services review panel.