AN outspoken borough councillor, who controversially quit the Tories and joined UKIP earlier this year, is standing down at the next local election.

Councillor Ken Turner said after 13 years on Dudley Council he was “disillusioned” with all the political parties.

The colourful member for Hayley Green and Cradley South criticised the cabinet system for putting power into too few hands.

He said: “Too often the parties are happy to select and elect their friends and associates and not for the benefit of residents as a whole.

“Anyone who stands up and questions them has constant harassment as I have had for the last 13 years.”

Cllr Turner believes councillors should be elected on their own manifestos and not stifled by party dogma.

He added he would not be retiring if the council had approved his plan to cut the number of councillors from 72 to 48 with two per ward instead of three to reduce costs.

The veteran councillor joined UKIP shortly after retreating to the independent benches after a fall out with the Halesowen and Rowley Regis Conservative Association in December 2013.

He quit before a disciplinary hearing could be held into complaints about his behaviour surrounding the replacement candidate for disgraced Tory Ray Burston in the Hayley Green and Cradley South ward.

Cllr Turner became UKIP leader on Dudley Council earlier this year, but described the fledgling right-wing party as “very new, inexperienced and with an awful lot to learn”.

He revealed he is also undecided as to whether to continue his parliamentary campaign as UKIP’s candidate for Walsall South in next year’s general election.

And his wife, Hazel, who also moved to UKIP from the Conservatives in support of him, will give up her Hayley Green and Cradley South seat on Dudley Council when she is due for re-election in 2016.

Bill Etheridge, chairman of UKIP’s Dudley and Halesowen Association, said the loss of the two councillors would have “no effect” on the party as they had a “large number” of potential candidates for next May’s elections.

He said: “Ken and Hazel have every right to decide when they retire and I respect their decision.”

At 72, Cllr Turner said he wanted to “enjoy the autumn” of his life with his grandchildren.