After former Reform councillor Christine Duffy mistakenly resigned from Kidsgrove Town Council instead of Newcastle Town ward, withdrew it and subsequently resigned from Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, a by-election has been triggered, with five candidates vying for her old seat.
Set to take place on 8 October, the candidates are Andrew Fox-Hewitt (Labour & Co-operative Party), Adam Griffiths (Reform UK), Conna Douglas Eynon (Conservatives), Morgan Inwood (Liberal Democrats) and Mark Jones (Green Party).
Whoever wins, it won’t make much difference to the overall political make-up in Newcastle, where the controlling Reform Party, currently led by Jonathan Gullis, has 26 seats, with the Conservatives on 15 and Labour on 2. The other borough councillor representing Town ward is Labour’s Sheelagh Casey-Hulme, who is unaffected by the by-election.
Whoever gets elected could find themselves serving on Newcastle Borough Council for longer than expected, after the Government paused plans for local government reorganisation in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. The proposed new unitary councils had been due to begin operating in April 2028, but the Government is now reviewing the process.
Homelessness and town regeneration
One of the candidates standing in Town ward is the Green Party’s Mark Jones, who says he’s concentrating on the issues that have been flagged up to him by residents in his bid to get elected. “That’s helping get the homeless off our streets and into safe accommodation and increasing the number of dog waste bins in our local parks and general waste bins around the area.”
He is also keen to improve the town centre. “I believe we can replicate what is happening in Longton here in Newcastle and turn our town back into the vibrant centre it used to be.”
If Jones were elected, Gullis would also find himself meeting with some stiff opposition to decisions such as rescinding the Climate Emergency Declaration and stepping back from Net Zero 2030 targets, with Jones stating that he would “fight to bring a sensible approach to climate breakdown back to the council so we can prepare for what is inevitably coming.”
Jones also criticised the council's decision to withdraw from the Local Government Association (LGA), which he said had removed councillors' access to training and other support.
“With regards to Councillor Duffy, despite the money that is now being wasted on this election, I feel sorry for her, as she was clearly not supported by her party. They removed the council's access to training for councillors by leaving the Local Government Association without any thought about the repercussions of that decision.”
The council announced its intention to withdraw from the LGA. The association says Newcastle currently remains a member, while 316 of England's 317 councils are members.
In a recent Knot story, Kidsgrove Independents shared the letter from Cllr Duffy, which indicated she wanted to resign as she’d received no training.
Parking, HMOs and safety
Another election hopeful for the town ward seat is Andrew Fox-Hewitt, who is standing as the Labour and Co-operative candidate. He has previously been a Newcastle Borough Councillor for nine years and describes himself as “a vocal advocate” for safer streets, protecting green spaces, and better, more joined-up public transport across North Staffordshire.
He told The Knot that when Duffy stepped down after just four months, he decided to “stand to make a difference and be a strong voice” for Town.
One immediate issue that he thinks the Council should be focusing on in Town is making the gateways safe for those visiting. “We can see an increase in rough sleepers and those with complex addictions; people don't feel safe walking into town.
“The Council should be employing town rangers and working with the police to have a town centre presence to issue dispersal orders to clean up our town and make it safe to visit. I want to create a Town Centre Safety board with key stakeholders including our local market traders and town businesses,” he added.
Fox-Hewitt also highlights the “sharp increase” in change of use and HMO applications in Town. “We must tackle this unchecked growth of HMOs that fundamentally alter the character of our neighbourhoods. Residents deserve a town centre where people can build stable homes, raise families and feel part of a community.”
The growing pressures of parking are another concern. “Development mustn’t simply count the number of bedrooms and properties; it must consider the real impact on the communities who already live there, and this includes access to safe parking.”
Like Jones, Fox-Hewitt is also keen to oppose the Reform administration's changes to previous environmental and clean-air commitments, saying, “their ideological pursuit is not in the interests of those who live, work and learn in our borough.”
First-time buyer support and anti-social behaviour
Attempting to retain the Reform seat will be cllr Adam Griffiths, who currently serves as county councillor for Newcastle South, where he is vice-chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He has outlined his priorities via his Facebook page as supporting first-time buyers, tackling parking and cracking down on anti- social behaviour. He also wants to ‘greatly reduce’ the amount of HMOs and “make Town an attractive, affordable, and welcoming place for young families to settle down and build a future.”
He told The Knot, “I want to see Newcastle town centre continue to improve, with regeneration delivering positively for residents and local businesses. Community safety and anti-social behaviour, cleanliness, the condition of local areas and making sure residents living around the town centre have their voices heard would also be important priorities for me.”
Like Fox-Hewitt, he’s also campaigning on parking, stating that parking on residential streets 'has become a ‘massive daily headache’. On the subject of crime, he says, “Anti-social behaviour and open drug use in our town centre and surrounding subways are completely unacceptable. Residents who have lived here for decades should never feel afraid to walk through their own town after dark.”
Asked about cllr Duffy’s decision to step down, he says, “she made the decision to resign and I respect that decision. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to speculate about her personal reasons or the circumstances surrounding it.”
“Despite the money that is now being wasted on this election, I feel sorry for cllr Duffy, as she was clearly not supported by her party.”
– Mark Jones, Town ward candidate for the Green Party
The Liberal Democrat candidate, Morgan Inwood, was approached for comment but didn’t respond, but from the North Staffs Liberal Democrats page, it seems that women’s safety is uppermost in their mind. Their most recent post, from 21 September, questions why Newcastle’s Women’s Safe Space was locked and closed just as the night was beginning.
The party has discovered that the council, under both Tory and Reform leadership, had failed to give the necessary support or funding for it to continue beyond Fridays and Saturdays from 6pm to 2am, with an urge to “vote Morgan Inwood” at the bottom of the post.
Gullis previously campaigned for Conservative candidate Conna Douglas Eynon, urging residents to vote for him in the May 2025 elections in a Facebook post published in December 2024. Eynon has previously stood for election in Kidsgrove in May 2025 but was beaten into third place by Labour and Reform.
Christine Duffy's resignation is the latest in a series of departures involving Reform councillors in Staffordshire this year. In June, Charlotte Kelly defected from Reform to the Conservatives, citing what she described as bullying and sexism within the Reform group in Staffordshire Moorlands.
Lynn Dean, who had represented Knutton on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and also sits on Staffordshire County Council, was suspended by Reform in March following allegations over racist social media posts. She later became an independent.
Duffy’s resignation may have started with a case of mistaken paperwork, but it has given residents another chance to consider what they see as the most important issues their local councillor should be addressing, whether that’s homelessness, HMOs, town centre regeneration or the environment.
With five candidates on the ballot and the campaign now under way, Town ward voters will decide who takes the vacant seat on 8 October.
The Knot contacted the two other candidates, Conna Douglas Eynon for the Conservatives and Morgan Inwood for the Liberal Democrats, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Let’s hope that Newcastle council is successful in regenerating the town- it was always such a ‘go to’ place.