Primrose Hill councillor to resign triggering by-election

Camden Town and Primrose Hill voters are set to return to the ballot box earlier than expected after a councillor announced his plans to step down.

Labour Cllr Thomas Neumark, who was elected in 2010, will resign in March so that he can move to Washington DC, where his wife works as an economist for the World Bank.

A by-election is expected in May, on the same day as the London Mayoral election.

Cllr Neumark said: “I want to be up front and transparent. I am stepping down for entirely personal reasons.

“I spent last year travelling across the Atlantic to see my wife, who has been living and working in America, but it is just too tough.”

The announcement is a blow for the council leadership, as Cllr Neumark is the second Labour councillor since 2010 to step down. Former Highgate representative Michael Nicolaides’ resigned last year.

Cllr Neumark said the two years he spent in office were “very hard” because of the deep funding cuts.

But he said he was “heartened” that transitional funding had been given to help keep Chalk Farm library open.

He said: “No one wants to see anything lost, let alone something as well loved as the library.

“But it’s a testament to the good people of Primrose Hill for saving it.

“Primrose Community Association is resourceful, passionate people, and even though it was a blow to hear that ours was a library that would lose funding, I was cautiously optimistic that if anyone could make it work, we could.”