By-election date announced for seat vacated by disgraced Milton Keynes councillor

A by-election will be held in Newport Pagnell next month to fill the vacancy left by disgraced former councillor Scot Balazs.

A Citizen investigation last week uncovered the secret life of the elected Tory, who was convicted more than two months ago of driving without a full licence, with no insurance and without paying due care and attention.

The incident that prompted the charges was a serious collision in February, involving a van belonging to popular local florist Bluebell Flowers.

Sadly, because of the insurance complication, the florist has never received compensation for the written-off van. And the lack of a delivery vehicle, coupled with a major loss of Valentine’s Day trade due to the collision, last week forced her to close down her shop on Newport Pagnell High Street after 15 years of trading.

She is continuing to work from home with the same contact details.

Now a by-election is to be held in the town on September 21. The seat is Newport Pagnell South and was taken by the Conservative Mr Balazs from retiring popular Lib Dem councillor Douglas McCall in 2021.

Already the by-election is seen as a chance for the Lib Dems to snatch the seat back. Currently they have 15 seats on MK City Council, while Conservatives also have 15 and Labour has 27.

There is no party in overall control and the council is run by an alliance between Labour and Lib Dems.

Meanwhile, Mr Balazs’ former Conservative colleagues insist they knew nothing about his convictions. They say he’d only recently filled in an official form that asked: ‘Have you been convicted, cautioned or received a fixed penalty or are there any proceedings pending for any criminal matter?’

His reply was ‘none’.

Unusually, the court proceedings were held at High Wycombe Magistrates Court rather than locally. They resulted in a total fine of £660 and six penalty points.

Conservatives say they were also unaware of another matter that landed Mr Balazs before magistrates on a separate occasion. Court records state he was caught by a litter warden – ironically employed by MK City Council -for throwing a cigarette butt on the floor outside Costa Coffee in Newport Pagnell.

After not paying the fine, he was summonsed to appear before MK magistrates in the August of that year.

On Thursday last week, Mr Balazs resigned within an hour of the Citizen revealing his misdemeanors to his party leaders.

He said in a statement to the Citizen: “I apologise for any upset and concern my actions may have caused. I feel that the issue is of sufficient severity and has placed enormous stress upon myself and my family that the only honourable option for me is to resign with immediate effect from my role as a Milton Keynes City councillor.”

• This week sympathisers launched a special fundraising page to buy or lease another delivery van for Bluebell Flowers so owner Brenda Gregory can make a go of the business from her home.
• Called Let's Get Bluebells Back On The Road, it has a target of £7,500 and already £3,000 has been raised. You can view the page here.