By John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter: The leader of one of the two rival groups of independent councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council quit the group after being forced out as leader.
Peasedown councillor Karen Walker originally said she had left Independents for B&NES because she had decided she could better represent her residents by being a “purely independent” unaligned councillor outside of any group. But her departure from the group actually followed a vote to remove her as leader. She then approached another group but they declined to let her join.
Gavin Heathcote, who also represents Peasedown and replaced Ms Walker as leader of Independents of B&NES, said: “She left before she was pushed. […] It has nothing to do with deciding what is best for our residents.”
Mr Heathcote had challenged her leadership of the group, asking her to step aside so that he could lead it into the 2027 local elections, and won a vote of the group’s three councillors to replace her as leader. Ms Walker said: “He has not had enough experience as a councillor, and not the best placed person to lead the group.”
The two councillors had split from the original Independent Group in April 2025 in order to form Independents for B&NES with then newly elected independent Chris Warren (Saltford). The Independent Group had declined to let Mr Warren join the group due to a “lack of clarity” about whether he ran an offensive account on X (formerly Twitter).
The account on X, which had tweeted selfies of Mr Warren and was deleted the day after he was elected, had targeted the local council, politicians, and minorities with offensive posts. Mr Warren has said he was not behind the account and the tweets did not reflect his views, although he found some of them funny.
Mr Warren and Mr Heathcote remain members of Independents for B&NES, with Mr Heathcote leader of the group of two. Ms Walker now sits as an unaligned councillor but she did approach the Independent Group about re-joining.
Independent Group spokesperson Shaun Hughes (Midsomer Norton North) said: “Following a group discussion, it was decided that it would not be appropriate for her to re-join at this time.” Ms Walker said she had accepted this “with good grace.”
Independent councillors often join together to form a group on a council in order to secure funding and spots on committees, which are decided based on political proportionality. In addition to the two rival groups of independents there are now also three unaligned councillors on the council who are not part of any group: Ms Walker herself, Grant Johnson (Paulton), and Bharat Pankhania (Combe Down).
Mr Johnson quit Labour in January over the national direction of the party. Dr Pankhania left the Liberal Democrats in July after reposting a tweet on X which called an arson attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity an “Israeli false flag.” He has apologised, called it a mistake, and said he will resign as a councillor.
The council is still dominated by the Liberal Democrats who have 38 councillors. Labour are the official opposition with six councillors, the Green Party have three, and the Conservatives have two. The Independent Group has five members and Independents for B&NES now has two.
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