Ben Evans resigns due to pressure on his ‘mental health and well-being’

The former Vice President for Activities resigned from his position this afternoon as the role of VP began to adversely affect his "mental health and well-being", the SU claims.

This follows a series events following the leaked details of the negotiations to sell the Sugarhouse. The events include the original Vote of No Confidence (VNC) petition, LA1TV's attempted doorstop interview, and the lifting of the embargo on the Full Time Officers, allowing them to publicly express their stance on the sale of Sugar.

In a Facebook statement, Evans said: "Through lifting the embargo and allowing the officers to take a political stance and then allowing them to reveal their voting stance (breaking the Trustee code and collective responsibility), and blatantly intimidating me by fabricating reasons for the VNC petition against me, they have sought out to undemocratically get me out of the way, so that they can get theirs."

The SU's full statement can be found here: "Ben Evans, Vice-President Activities, has today resigned his position at Lancaster University Students' Union with immediate effect.

"Since the information about the negotiations for a potential sale of The Sugarhouse was leaked, Ben has felt under considerable pressure, in terms of his mental health and wellbeing.

"The decision to engage in negotiations was taken collectively by the whole Trustee Board. The focus on Ben and attempts to blame him alone are unwarranted.

"The personal attacks to which he has been subjected are unjustified. It is to his credit that in spite of this he continued to perform his role as VP Activities. However, he has now decided that for his own health and wellbeing he has to resign."

"We are very disappointed that Ben has been put in a position where he feels he has to take this decision, but we fully respect his reasons for doing so. We would like to thank Ben for his work for students at the Union since his election and the valuable contribution he has made to the team. We will miss him very much and we all wish him well for the future.

"In the meantime, we are ensuring that Ben's duties are fully covered while arrangements are made for the election of someone to take over his role. We will keep students fully informed of this process."

Featured image credit: LUSU