A LABOUR councillor for the Stroud District and chairman of the council’s development control committee is standing down.

The announcement that Cllr Ken Stephens, who represents the Eastington and Standish ward, had resigned as a district councillor came yesterday.

Cllr Stephens was first elected as a Stroud District Councillor in 1995 and has continued in his role up until yesterday, being reelected in five consecutive elections.

Cllr Steve Lydon, a Stroud Labour colleague of Cllr Stephens as well as the Gloucestershire County Councillor for Dursley, said: “Ken is a good man and I enjoyed his company. I’m sorry to see him go.”

Green Cllr John Marjoram added: “He was such a very good person to work with, he’ll be greatly missed.

"I’ve been on the council for about 30 years and he’s been the best chairman we’ve had, he was so thorough on detail.”

As the chairman of the SDC’s development control committee since 2012, Cllr Stephens has overseen a wide range of proposed developments, including the recently refused outline application for 59 homes in Kingswood.

The reasons behind the resignation are at this point unclear. Despite repeated attempts to contact members of the Stroud Labour Party, only Cllr Lydon and Cllr Colin Fryer could be reached. Cllr Lydon said he did not know the reasons behind Cllr Stephens’ stepping down and Cllr Fryer declined to comment.