The Members of the Andover Independents Party (AIP) have announced their intention to disband the political party, saying they have achieved the aims it originally set out to accomplish.

The AIP was initially founded in 2019 by ex-Andover Alliance Party members, as a direct response to believed failings, so that “the people of Andover could be put first”.

Cllr Rebecca Meyer, the outgoing leader of the Andover Independents Party, said: “We set out on a separate mission, away from the mass hysteria caused by the then-newly established Andover Alliance, and to focus on one crucial goal, to ensure that the residents of Andover have people in power they know that they can count on.

"There has been a recent proliferation of other elected independent councillors, so now there is no longer a clear need nor specific requirement to have a collection of councillors under an independent party, therefore we have come to the conclusion to disband the party.”

READ MORE: Expelled Andover Alliance members form new "grassroots" political group

She continued: “We have demonstrated that national politics had no place in local government, where local people must be making local decisions; decisions that had no right to be influenced by national interests such as by Tories or Lib Dems - we thought it was not right, so we did something about it."

The party consisted of Cllr Meyer, Cllr David Coole, Cllr Joanne Coole, Cllr Nicholas Asamoah and Cllr Christopher Ecclestone - who will all now serve as Independents.

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