Next mayor on council as new leader steps up

the authority were significant, including cuts totalling £197m and another £44m over the next two years.

He said: “I still feel that the impact of those cuts have not been felt, so we need to work together to face those challenges.

“Balancing the books is important – that we don’t go into the red and we work on a cross-party basis.

“We have a lack of affordable housing. Growth is not what it should be. Infrastructure is a massive issue as well.

“Devolution is also a massive issue. People don’t understand what devolution is all about.”

And in terms of reflecting the borough’s diverse community he said he wanted Kirklees Council to address issues of fairness, equality and respect and to be the best council by 2020.

Tory leader Clr David Hall urged Clr Pandor to be upfront on his plans and asked if there would be a change of direction.

“We need the confidence that his term of office will not be conducted according to any personal debts that have to be paid because he’s not only answerable to his own party,” he said.

Liberal Democrat group leader Clr John Lawson reminded Clr Pandor of Kirklees’ crumbling infrastructure, half-empty town centres, struggling businesses, a crisis in children’s safeguarding services, looming strike action and “a plague of potholes.”

Green leader Clr Andrew Cooper urged Labour colleagues against reverting to “factory settings” given their majority and added: “You can imagine the voices in our Labour Group saying: ‘Now we have a majority we can do what we want.’

“We need a masterplan to take us forward.

“We need to see a programme which will show us the direction a leader will lead us in.

“We haven’t seen that yet and we need to see it soon.”