A LEADING councillor has been ordered to do 160 hours community service and banned from the roads for two years after he crashed after drink driving at nearly threee times the legal limit.

James Hore

A LEADING councillor has been ordered to do 160 hours community service after he crashed after drink-driving at nearly three times the legal limit.

Steven Henderson, cabinet member for housing at Tendring District Council (TDC), appeared at Colchester Magistrates' Court this morning.

He pleaded guilty to being nearly three times over the limit on October 9 last year after the red Peugeot 206 he was driving was in collision with a stationary car on Fronks Road, Harwich.

Henderson was taken to Colchester General Hospital after being injured in the lunchtime crash and about two-and-a-half hours later he gave a blood reading of 213microgrammes over 100 millilitres. The legal limit is 80.

He was also banned from the roads for 24 months, given a 12-month community order and had to pay �85 costs.

Speaking afterwards he apologised for the shame the incident had brought on his family, saying he “held his hands up” to what he had done and said he hoped voters would also be sympathetic.

Henderson is leader of the Community Representatives Party at TDC and was appointed to the cabinet in May by Conservative council leader Neil Stock.