Independents hold the balance of power in city
PLYMOUTH City Council’s Conservative group will need support from at least three breakaway councillors to take firm control of the local authority.
The local elections last week saw power shift away from Labour, which lost its overall majority. Now the focus is on the Independents, who hold the balance of power in the city.
The city council election results left the Conservatives as the biggest group, with 26 seats. Labour lost its majority and shrank from 30 to 24 seats.
Of the seven Independents, five are former members of the Conservative group who quit last year in protest at the new leadership.
On Monday, they were waiting to be contacted by Tory group leader, Councillor Nick Kelly, who has said he wants to explore a “working relationship” with them.
The crucial number needed to form a majority on the 57-seat council is 29. As the biggest party, the Tories now get the first chance to create a workable administration.
That puts the Independents in a powerful position, with the chance to make or break a ruling partnership. The first deadline for any agreement to be in place is the council’s annual meeting on Friday, May 21.
That is when the make-up of committees is due to be decided. Each should have a majority of councillors from the controlling group so it can carry out its policies, but, with no party having overall control, there is a risk that without a deal to put a group in power, the council could be left with no clear direction.
Five of the remaining Independents are former members of the Conservative group who left in October last year, when simmering unhappiness with the leadership came to the surface.
They include the former Tory group leader Ian Bowyer and his wife Lynda, both councillors in Eggbuckland.
The other former Conservative group members are Nigel Churchill in Plymstock Dunstone, Andrea Johnson in Compton, and Kathy Watkin in Plymstock Radford.
Although they left the group, they have remained members of the Conservative Party. It would be difficult to see them backing Labour, especially after the election showed public support has swung to the Tories in the city.
It is now a question of whether both sides can bury the hatchet and agree a deal to work together.
The split in the Conservative group last year was bitter, amid claims that rules were broken and accusations of a culture of “aggression and intimidation”.
Cllr Kelly has denied all the allegations and said he had been elected in a democratic process.
Cllr Bowyer, the former group leader, said on Monday he would listen to what his successor had to say, and would want assurances about the conduct of any future working arrangements.
Cllr Bowyer said: “He has got to come out and spell out how intends to deliver the manifesto he has been elected on. There were some expensive commitments in that manifesto, and with my former Cabinet member for finance hat on, I would be interested to know how that is going to be funded.
“The position I have at the moment is that I await a phone call, I await a conversation. I would like to hear what he has to say, and I will consider the way forward.”