The political group running Ashfield District Council has lost one of its members amid an ongoing row over the authority being “brought into disrepute” by its deputy leader.
Cllr Kier Barsby, for Sutton St Mary’s, no longer represents the Ashfield Independents and now sits as an unaligned independent member.
Leader of the council and ruling Ashfield Independents, Cllr Jason Zadrozny, said Cllr Barsby was removed from the group “for his dalliances with the Reform party and for failure to abide by our internal group principles”.
However, Cllr Barsby said he had submitted his resignation as he believes the authority was being “brought into disrepute” by the deputy leader, Cllr Tom Hollis, who has a number of convictions. Cllr Barsby said he has no plans to join Reform.
“I refute everything [Cllr Zadrozny] is saying,” he said. “Before Christmas, a certain councillor pleaded guilty to yet another misdemeanour. I am not prepared to sit in a group and not say anything, and make it seem as though people condone him. “I’m sick and tired of social media branding us all as criminals.
“He has not only brought the group into disrepute, but also brought council officers into disrepute, and I feel for them.
“Before Christmas, I called the leader to have a conversation with him, and my question to him was: ‘Now that this councillor has been found guilty, what was your intention?’ His reply was that he was a hard-working councillor.
“My resignation went in, and he then made it so that I was sacked via an email to group members.”
Cllr Barsby said he had prepared three motions to table at a council meeting calling for the sacking of Cllr Hollis, as well as a vote of no confidence in Cllr Hollis, the leader and his cabinet. To help get the motion across the line, he sought backing from the Reform members on the authority.
Cllr Zadrozny said: “Cllr Barsby was removed from the group for his dalliances with the Reform party and for failure to abide by our internal group principles, which include attendance at meetings and workload for constituents.
“His work fell so far below par that he has sadly pretended that his expulsion from our group was his own choice and is frankly lying about his removal in an attempt to distract from his own failures.
“He has let down our group and the residents who elected him, and that’s why he was expelled from us, in a similar way to that in which he was previously expelled from the Labour Party.
In hindsight, we should have listened to them when they warned us about his disastrously lacklustre work attitude.”
The spat comes after Cllr Hollis, who represents Huthwaite and Brierley, admitted three counts of being the owner of dogs that were dangerously out of control at a Mansfield Magistrates’ Court hearing in June last year. He also pleaded guilty to a fourth charge of obstructing a police officer at his home address in January the same year.
His earlier convictions include one for careless driving in September 2022, a day after being found guilty of harassing his neighbours without violence during lockdown in the pandemic. He was removed as deputy leader by Cllr Zadrozny, who said at the time his deputy’s position was “no longer tenable”. However, Cllr Hollis was reappointed following the group’s landslide 32-seat local election victory in May 2023.
Cllr Hollis was fined for failing to declare a financial interest at a hearing at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court in February 2024. A number of petitions have been set up calling for his resignation.
