CONSERVATIVE stalwart Harold Moth has resigned from the party following 32 years serving Redbridge Tories.

COUNCIL stalwart Harold Moth has resigned from the Conservative group on Redbridge Council following 32 years serving the borough’s Tories.

Cllr Moth made council leader Cllr Keith Prince aware of his wishes to leave on Tuesday following a temporary resignation period which started three weeks ago.

He has been on the council from 1974 to 1994, and then from 1998.

He will continue in his capacity as councillor for Fullwell ward, but standing independently.

Cllr Moth has had a checkered political history, having refused to vote with his party on several occasions, and becoming an independent councillor.

In March 2008 the Recorder reported that Cllr Moth had quit the Tory group so he could oppose the closure of Mildmay Day Centre in Albert Road, Ilford.

He had previously had the whip withdrawn after failing to toe the party line in February 2007 in what he described as a punishment for “putting the well-being of residents before party politics”.

Cllr Moth has an interest in mental health as his mother, who died in 1985, had dementia.

The Recorder reported in 1987 that Cllr Moth was angry after a heated exchange with the council leadership who opposed plans to house psychiatric patients opposite a primary school.