EXILED’ NORTHUMBERLAND COUNCILLOR Roderick Lawrie has admitted to The Clarion that he will resign his Norham and Islandshires council seat. “I have no other option,” he said, sadly.
But he hit back at claims that his attendances at council meetings suffered after he was forced to leave the country and move his home and business to the Isle of Man.
“My home is now in the Isle of Man,” he told The Clarion. “But with email I can do – indeed I have been doing – all of my county council work.
“In fact my record of attendance at County Hall meetings [in Morpeth] is 100 per cent, I just can’t get to all the parish council meetings.”
Councillor Lawrie still feels he cannot comment on claims from friends and former employees that he has been forced offshore because his snuff tobacco company, Toque Snuff, was threatened with a €2.4million registration bill to allow him to trade in the EU. He is, however, keen to explain the difficulties relating to his council work.
Speaking from his family home in Invergowrie outside Dundee, Mr Lawrie said: “I’m only visiting Invergowrie as it is my family home but my own residence now is on the Isle of Man, where I have started a new snuff business.
“I have achieved a lot in the two years I have been a county councillor, I’m just sorry I can’t get to all the parish meetings any more.”
A byelection if or when Mr Lawrie’s seat is vacated is inevitable, but presumably Northumberland must await his resignation before it can act. Will Booth, senior elections manager for Northumberland County, explained that ongoing qualification to serve is based on the qualification of the individual at the time of their nomination but that he must remain qualified to vote in the constituency from the day of nomination onwards for the full term of office.
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Returning from a week in Slough – my children have always enjoyed exotic locations – thanks to the local Conservatives, I found a copy of their ‘Northumberland News’ waiting for me on the mat.
Ever since THAT Brexit advert which suggested millions would be returned to the NHS once we had taken back control of our affairs from Brussels, I quickly moved beyond a headline claiming the NHS will benefit from a Budget boost. Having spent a week travelling the Capital’s public transport, I had had enough of works of fiction, masquerading there as railway timetables, to last a lifetime, and went straight to the back page where there was a list of local Conservative councillors.
No matter how closely I looked, one name was missing – that of my local councillor, Roderick Lawrie who is supposed to represent Norham and Islandshire. I knew that he could be difficult to contact, and had even heard rumours that he had re-located to the Isle of Man. Never in my wildest imagination did I consider he might no longer exist, that he might have been vaped in one of the tobacco products he markets – literally gone up in smoke.
Now, thanks to The Clarion, I know what has happened to Mr Lawrie!
He may have attended County Council meetings but since his election he has only attended 2 Lowick Parish Council meetings (May and June 2017) despite these meeting dates being changed so it did not interfere with his attendance at the Area Committee meetings. No apologies for absence were received.