Labour make gains as leaders set out targets
POLITICAL groups are looking at their options to lead and exert influence on West Lancashire Borough Council in the next 12 months, following the latest local elections.
Labour, Conservative and Our West Lancashire groups held meetings this week to consider their options for the next 12 months.
Thursday’s local election resulted in 11 Labour councillors, eight Conservatives and one Our West Lancashire councillor being elected to the borough council.
The council is again officially under no overall control. This means no single political group has enough councillors to out-vote all other groups.
It is a similar situation to the previous 12 months but during that period the Labour Party held the key cabinet, leader and deputy leader posts.
In this complex political landscape, votes and decisions by councillors can be finely-balanced.
This was seen recently with one dramatic vote by the Conservatives and Our West Lancashire groups to wind-down the council-owned house building company, Tawd Valley Developments Ltd, followed by another vote won by Labour to rescind the earlier decision and therefore keep the housing company active.
All the political groups held their annual meetings on Monday this week, where nominations for group leader and deputy group leader roles were considered.
For Labour, Coun Yvonne Gagen was expected to become the new group leader, following the departure of Ian Moran, who stood down from being a councillor at the election, as previously reported.
Coun Gagen was deputy Labour group leader and deputy leader of the council last year.
Now as the Labour group leader, she could become political leader of West Lancashire Borough Council too, if Labour can win votes to fill the key cabinet positions again at the next full council meeting on Wednesday, May 18.
Coun Gagen told the Local Democracy Reporting Service this week: “We have one nomination for the Labour group leader role and three nominations for deputy group leader.
“So, based on that, I will be the Labour group leader.
Regarding the local election results, she said: “We saw the return of three current Labour councillors and eight new councillors, which we are delighted with. We narrowly missed out on a number of other seats which would have moved us out of no overall control. But we hope to continue to lead the council and deliver on Labour priorities.
“The year ahead will be an important one as we prepare for the all-out borough election in 2023 and deliver on some major projects, such as the replacement of the Park Pool and Nye Bevan Swiming Pool, which represents one of the biggest investments for the council.
“We will also continue to work with Tawd Valley Developments Ltd in delivering much-needed quality, affordable homes.”
She later added: “We produced a video regarding Tawd Valley Developments for our campaign which had thousands of views.
“We will continue to make our residents aware of the great work TVD is doing and the benefits of having a development company working with and for the council.”
It was later revealed the new West Lancs Labour group Deputy Leader is Coun Gareth Dowling.
Meanwhile, Conservative group leader Coun David Westley said: “I was pleased with the overall result given the national picture as the Conservatives remain on 20 seats. It was very disappointing to lose a seat in
Aughton Park ward but this was balanced by an excellent gain from Labour in North Meols (Banks) ward.
“The outcome was unchanged for last year with no one party having an overall majority.
“I would like to assure the residents that the Conservatives will continue to work with the other political groups to ensure the smooth running of the borough council.”
Our West Lancashire (OWL) chairman Coun Adrian Owens said: “We were delighted to see Coun Ian Davis re-elected as an OWL councillor for Derby ward.
“Ian has now won the approval of the ward’s electors three times onthe-trot, showing the value that residents attach to being represented by an independent councillor who addresses their concerns without fear or favour. In the other wards where OWL candidates stood, Neil Pye, Janet Ingman and Alex Dow all came in very strong second places behind Labour, which had held the three seats before the election and for many years.
“In Skelmersdale South, Joy Balan out-voted the Conservatives and put down a marker for next year.
“It was very positive to see new OWL candidates standing for the first time. That bodes well for the future.
“Many of our current councillors took time to build their following and did a lot of campaign activity.
“On the borough council there is little change. But Labour finished these latest elections with one seat less than last year, after the switch of one of their councillors to Independent in March.
“So the number of Labour councillors has dropped to only 25 out of the 54 seats and the council remains ‘hung’.” All councillors therefore will continue to have some influence in the forthcoming year. We see that as an important, positive scenario to come from these election results.
“Our West Lancashire will continue to make the case for more inclusive decision-making that involves the skills and talents which councillors from all quarters bring, through their varied professional and personal lives.”
Over the past 12 months, Coun Owens and some others have called for changes to the cabinet and committee systems at West Lancashire.
He said new arrangements are needed to better-reflect the multiparty political landscape. A review report is expected later this year.
Meanwhile, the council has started to create new task groups linked to committees to focus on topics. Membership of new groups is designed to be open to a wider number of ‘backbench’ councillors and also potentially others who are not councillors.
The full council meeting on May 18 starts at 7.30pm.