Fourth councillor steps down from town council in 12 months

A town councillor has stepped down just six weeks after the authority filled its vacant spots on the council.

Diss has been subject to four councillor resignations in the past 12 months and Keith Kiddie is the latest to relinquish the role.

For the past year Mr Kiddie has been working as a councillor on all three levels of local government in Norfolk: Town, district and county.

He said: 'I am so busy with my responsibilities that I am finding it virtually impossible to maintain my diary in an effective way.

'Many of the meetings and requirements of being a town councillor tend to happen during the working day.

'Having done the role for seven or eight years I am a great believer that you try and do the thing to the best of your ability and I can't give the town the same amount of time and effort as I did in the past.'

Mr Kiddie joins three other councillors who have resigned from Diss Town Council in the past year - Joe Aitken, Mike Bardwell and Graham Minshull.

After several months with vacant seats the council co-opted three new members to its ranks at a meeting in March.

However, Mr Kiddie said he is still committed to the town and working in its best interests.

At the Diss annual town meeting he said: 'Diss is a perfect little town in a wonderful county, a market town which is beautifully formed.

'I live in Diss and I like doing stuff in Diss but as a county councillor for Diss and Roydon so I have to spend my time in a more strategic way.

'I will still attend full town council meetings as I do in Roydon Parish.'

Mr Kiddie also told the attendees of the meeting how he used his county council member's allowance to help fund the repair of roads around the town.

He also helped pay for the moving of the bus stop near the Shell garage on Victoria Road to the other side of the roundabout in a bid to calm the traffic.