Harlow councillor Lorna Spenceley has announced that she will be stepping down as leader of the council's Liberal Democrat group later this month.

The move paves the way for the Liberal Democrats to elect a new leader at their group's Annual General Meeting on Monday 23 May.

Mrs Spenceley said:

"I became leader of the Liberal Democrats on Harlow Council in 1991, on my first day as a councillor, and I've led the group for fourteen continuous years, which must be some kind of record.

During that time, the Labour group on the council has had five different leaders, and the number of Tory councillors elected by local residents has varied between twelve and zero.

The Liberal Democrats now have a strong local team, and during our three years of influence on Harlow Council we've played the major part in setting the council back on the long and difficult road to recovery. We've also some significant local achievements to our credit, such as improved recycling rates, new street signs and waste bins, saving Nicholls Field and tackling anti-social behaviour.

I am looking forward to continuing to play a full and active part in the Liberal Democrat group and the local party. I shall give the new leader and his or her team my full support."

Bill Rammell's Liberal Democrat opponent in last week's General Election has congratulated him on his move from the Foreign Office to the Department for Education & Skills, as Higher Education Minister - but with a clear warning.

Lorna Spenceley said:

"I'd like to extend my congratulations to Bill on his appointment in this week's re-shuffle. However, he will now be responsible for the introduction of top-up fees for Harlow students applying to university this September - the top-up fees that Labour's 2001 General Election manifesto specifically said would not happen, and which I forced him to admit in the local press some months ago were 'a mistake'.

"A report published by the Higher Education Funding Council in January this year showed that only 16 per cent of young people in Harlow took up a university-level course, compared with 69 per cent in affluent Kensington & Chelsea. Top-up fees for university students will continue to put off students from less well-off backgrounds, and will make an already unequal playing field even worse. Harlow residents will be expecting Bill Rammell to fight for the interests of our local students, not hammer them further with massive fees and debts."

Harlow's Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Lorna Spenceley has called on the town's Returning Officer, Malcolm Morley, to review the management of last week's election count in Harlow.

Harlow was the last constituency in the country to declare a result, after Thursday night's election count was suspended at 6 o'clock the following morning, to resume the day after. The result - a win by a mere 97 votes for Labour - was not declared until almost lunchtime on Saturday.

Mrs Spenceley said in her letter to the Returning Officer:

"Harlow is a compact, urban district, with a few nearby villages within easy reach of the town centre. When remote constituencies such as Orkney & Shetland or the Western Isles can still declare before us, there must be something wrong."

She has strongly urged Mr Morley to arrange for a thorough review of the management of the election count to take place to ensure that lessons are learned and that the issues at the root of Thursday's events are resolved satisfactorily before the next election count.

Commenting on the result of Thursday's General Election, Harlow's Liberal Democrat candidate Lorna Spenceley said:

"The Liberal Democrats now have more MPs than at any time in the party's history. We fought a positive campaign, and benefited from our clear and consistent stance on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to ID cards and tuition fees.

Labour was severely punished at the polls by voters who feel they can no longer trust Tony Blair - and Labour MP Bill Rammell now has a wafer-thin majority of just 97 votes. Across the country, the Tories failed to attract people with a message that was unremittingly negative.

I'm very pleased that in Harlow, despite repeated and misleading claims from Labour that a vote for the Liberal Democrats risked letting in Michael Howard as prime minister, more than 5,000 electors cast a positive vote for the Liberal Democrats. We will continue to campaign on the issues that matter to local people, including the state of the NHS, tuition fees and top-up fees, security and dignity in retirement, and the need for more bobbies on the beat."