A Wisbech county councillor – and current mayor – Steve Tierney announced tonight he is stepping down from his £5,000 a year role as a community champion.

The controversial appointments (there is one for each district) were made last summer by county council leader Steve Count.

Cllr Tierney told colleagues that “after some careful consideration I have taken the decision to step down as area champion for Fenland and I have emailed the decision to relevant people this afternoon”.

He said: “I will continue to do everything I can to be a champion and a councillor for the areas I represent, just as I always do. I wish my replacement all the best.”

Among their responsibilities were working with communities wanting to “reduce reliance on statutory services” and helping to tackle issues such as homelessness to reduce costs of temporary housing.

They were also tasked with building up relations with the voluntary sector and exploring “volunteering opportunities to reduce reliance on paid services”.

A briefing note issued at the time also spoke of tackling worklessness to improve health and well being including mental health and to look at ways of tackling anti social behaviour.

Last October the county communities and partnership committee heard that “Cllr Steve Tierney has been working to contact each town and parish council in the district”.

It reported that he had held discussions about issues to do with the rural homelessness issue, working with volunteering organisations and setting up a conversational Lithuanian class for English speakers to build better links with Lithuanian residents who now make up around 10 per cent of the population

In December his report to the county council said he had set up meetings with parish and town councils.

“Useful information had been received from officers regarding scams prevention and that was being shared with vulnerable groups/contacts.,” his report noted.

It also said that valuable feedback had been received from people telling him what they believed area / community champions should be doing.

“Loneliness was identified as being a particular issue and he would report back after further discussions had been undertaken with village representatives,” according to committee minutes.