Birmingham City Council has been contacted for further details on when exactly a by-election in Shard End could take place.

Residents in a Birmingham area will soon be heading to the polls again just months after May’s local elections following the resignation of a councillor who made “unacceptable” comments.

Alan Feeney comfortably won the council seat in Shard End for Reform UK in the city-wide elections earlier this year, attracting more than 1,200 votes.

But just over five months later, he has now resigned as a Birmingham councillor after he was recorded in an ITV News investigation describing an area as “infested” with Asian families.

He also called them “absolute parasites” and was recorded saying no more than 1 per cent of the UK population should be non-white.

Mr Feeney quit Reform earlier this week before the comments were made public and has now stepped down from Solihull Borough Council where he was also a councillor.

“There is no excuse for my comments,” he wrote on social media earlier today, October 16.

“With responsibility comes accountability, and it is for that reason that I have resigned every post I hold on both Solihull Borough Council and Birmingham City Council.

“By-elections will be held on a timescale laid out by those councils in the due course. I hope that in time these councils, and the communities they serve can heal and move on.”

Birmingham City Council has been contacted for further details on when exactly a by-election in Shard End could take place.

But it will likely take place in the coming weeks following the nomination process, which will see potential candidates put themselves forward.

The full results for Shard End’s election back in May were as follows:

Harry Ballard, Green Party, 321
Christopher Francis Barber, Liberal Democrats, 103
Tony Briggs, Local Conservatives, 155
Alan James Feeney, Reform UK, 1,262
Ginge Smyth, Independent, 132
Fiona Williams, Labour and Co-operative Party, 488

Mr Feeney, who defected from the Conservative Party to Reform last year, also used his statement to offer his “sincere and unreserved apologies” for the comments made in the recording.

“My remarks were wrong, offensive and completely unacceptable,” he said. “They do not reflect the standards that the public rightly expects from an elected representative, and I take full responsibility for what I said.

“The comments do not reflect my true beliefs or opinions, particularly of the communities mentioned in the report.

“These are communities I have supported countless times in my personal and professional life over many years, many of whom I have been lucky enough to call friends.

“My true self is reflected in over a decade of public service on multiple local authorities, charities trusts and committees.”

He acknowledged the “hurt and anger” caused and added: “I will be undertaking intensive personal analysis to understand how these sentiments could have taken root, and ensure they can never do so again.”

A Reform spokesman told the BBC: “Where members, activists and councillors have clearly behaved inappropriately, investigations have commenced.”

The spokesman added that the party had improved its procedures but some individuals who did not share their values would occasionally make it through vetting.