The only member of the public to show up at a series of meetings about plans to shake up local government in Leicestershire described her week at County Hall as a 'holiday'.

Jean Collins, 78, appeared on the Sunday Politics Show after she attracted national attention when she featured on Leicestershire Live.

She previously talked about being the only member of the public to attend scrutiny meetings about the county, district and borough councils being scrapped and a new unitary council being formed in their place.

Jean Collins is attending all of the unitary authority scrutiny meetings at County Hall, Glenfield.

Mrs Collins even stayed in the Premier Inn next door to the council’s Glenfield HQ to ensure she could attend the meetings.

She said she stayed at the hotel - which charges £56 a night - as the alternative was to catch three buses there and three buses back from her Hinckley home.

Speaking on the show she said: “It was just so informative and interesting, it was amazing how quickly the time went. I don’t regret a second.

“It was a holiday, it really was.

“It was just an interesting subject which I wanted to know more about.”

After Jean's appearance, East Midlands MEP and former deputy mayor of Leicester, Rory Palmer, joked that Jean would make a good Brexit secretary.

Appearing on the show alongside Nottinghamshire County Council leader Kay Cutts, he slammed the unitary proposal.

He said: “Isn’t it interesting that Jean had to catch three buses from a village down the road from County Hall to get there?

“I think that underpins in a way the dangerous and over centralising nature of these super council proposals. Everything will gravitate around the all powerful County Hall at the cost of local decision making and local accountability.

Rory Palmer

“My criticism of these proposals in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire is that they almost feel like predatory capitalism, here’s the big organisation the county council, trying to swallow up the districts that are closer to local communities and local people and in my view, better placed to be delivering services.”

Coun Cutts, who is heading up similar plans in the neighbouring county, defended the move towards unitary authorities in both counties and blamed austerity for proposing the change.