HEYBRIDGE Parish Council has elected its new chairman – and he has vowed he has cut all ties with far-right the British National Party.

Long serving councillor Richard Perry won the secret ballot vote against three other councillors including last year’s chairman Simon Burwood.

The vote was taken at the annual parish meeting was held last Thursday at the Plantation Hall in Colchester Road, Heybridge.

After his election Mr Perry announced he had rescinded his membership of the BNP.

In his chairman’s announcements, Mr Perry said: “Please will you note that I resigned my probationary membership of the political party I was a member of last month so that I can totally concentrate on Heybridge.

“I would like to pay tribute to councillor Simon Burwood who has been an excellent chairman for the last year.

“He has made this council more transparent and democratic so I will continue in his footsteps.

“Heybridge has some challenging times ahead with the flood alleviation scheme dead in the water –excuse the pun.

“My new role is to make sure that all councillors are all heard equally and not just a few of the loud ones.

“Finally, my gift to the council is that I have never taken a penny in expenses while I have been elected and this will continue.

“Furthermore, I shall resume our fundraising events at the Millhouse Hotel so that all of our councillor expenses will be self-funded.”

The new vice-chairman, Ashley Jones, was nominated to the role and has also strongly repeated that he has no association to the BNP.

The nominated charity of the year will be St Peter’s Hospital maternity ward.

The next meeting of the new parish council will be on Wednesday, June 20.