by Stephen Waite

A former Swale mayor says he is disappointed not to have been selected to defend his seat at the next election.

Cllr Adrian Crowther, who has represented Sheppey since 2005, was last week de-selected as the Conservative candidate for the 2013 campaign.

He will be replaced by Cllr Ken Pugh, who is the current KCC member for Sheerness. Richard Darby will contest Sheerness for the Tories.

Speaking after a meeting of the Sittingbourne and Sheppey Conservative Association, where the changes were confirmed, Cllr Crowther, who served as mayor in 2009-10, said: “I would have liked to have continued.

"It’s not the done thing normally for someone to challenge the sitting member but it can happen and it has.”

Cllr Crowther said he did not know why Cllr Pugh had put his name down for the Sheppey seat but added: “Rushenden and Queenborough is not one of the easiest to win.

"If you take those two particular areas you have quite a fight on your hands. If you want an easy passage you opt for somewhere else.”

Party members had been contacted by letter with the names of those contending the seats, said Cllr Crowther, and they returned their votes by post.

“It’s disappointing but that’s politics,” he continued. “You take the rough with the smooth.

“It would have been nice to have done 12 years, then I would have probably called it a day.”

Cllr Pugh said he had been keen to fight the Sheppey seat and denied it would have been easier to win than Sheerness.

“That didn’t figure in my thinking at all. He (Cllr Crowther) only just scraped in last time himself. It’s sour grapes. He’s had a long run and perhaps he deserves a rest.

“The party rules from head office say no sitting member has an automatic right to that seat.”

He added: “I have done a lot for Sheerness, Queenborough and Halfway and I felt that it was time I put energy into helping regenerate the east end of the Island.”

Cllr Crowther, who still represents Minster Cliffs on Swale council and hopes to continue to do so, said he had been “quite elated” to become a county member.

He said he was particularly proud to have been responsible for the fitness equipment on The Leas in Minster and the environmentally-friendly street lighting in Scrapsgate Road.