Christine Edwards-Daem was among the first Ukip councillors ever to be elected to Maidstone Borough Council.

She is also the first to resign.

Mrs Edwards-Daem of Mill Bank, Headcorn, was returned for the Park Wood ward at last May’s election and should have served for the next four years, but resigned yesterday.

Mrs Edwards-Daem blamed the pressure of juggling her council commitments with an increased work-load after securing promotion in her day job last September.

She is the chief executive of the charity, the Kent Autistic Trust.

Council records show that Mrs Edwards-Daem has made only six of the 17 council and committee meetings that she was due to attend in the last 10 months.

Her election to Park Wood was achieved on a low turn-out of just 25%. She won 396 votes, a majority of 128 over second-placed Jade Webster (Con).

Ukip are hopeful of recovering the seat at the resulting by-election in May - when Mrs Edwards-Daem’s husband Peter will be the party’s candidate.

He said: “Hopefully, the electorate will chose to continue with an Edwards-Daem to represent them.

“Since gaining promotion, Christine has found it difficult to give her council role as much time as she would like. She has chosen to resign now, so that a by-election can be held at the same time as the other scheduled elections in May and the electorate will not be inconvenienced with an additional poll.”

Mr Edwards-Daem is already due to stand for his party as the Parliamentary Candidate for the Faversham and Mid Kent constituency, Sir Hugh Robertson’s seat, which covers much of Maidstone, including Park Wood.

He said: “As Park Wood falls within the wider constituency, I will be able to campaign there for both at the same time.”