I fail to see how a councillor who resides outside district he was elected to can truly represent us

AS a resident of Crossgar who voted at the last council and Assembly elections for councillor Patrick Brown, I am somewhat bemused, puzzled, annoyed and confused as to how an Alliance councillor can actually be elected in my council district when he has an address in Belfast as his residence.

I only noticed councillor Brown’s Belfast residential address when I read a newspaper article last week about him being convicted of a drink-driving offence in July 2017 and now giving readers a (belated) apology.

While it is not for me to criticise councillor Brown regarding his drink-driving conviction, as he has already been before the courts and been prosecuted, I fail to understand why my elected representative would choose to give an address in Belfast as his residence when he is, in fact, a councillor supposedly representing people like me living in Crossgar on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

Councillor Brown also states that he has continued throughout this period to work on behalf of all his constituents and has now referred himself voluntarily to the Local Government Standards Commissioner, as he holds himself to the same high standards he always has done. Is this statement actually meant to be some sort of congratulatory achievement from councillor Brown to himself?

The fact remains he has previously been very quick off the mark in the media, publicly condemning other elected representatives for their behaviour, but it has taken him six months to come clean publicly about his own behaviour.

WILLIAM CARVILLE Crossgar, Co Down