THE new leader of the Reform UK group at Staffordshire County Council has been unveiled.
A meeting of the 49 new councillors from the party chose Cllr Ian Cooper, who represents the Perrycrofts division in Tamworth.
His deputy will be Cannock Chase’s Cllr Martin Murray.
Cllr Cooper said:
“It’s an honour and a privilege to have been elected leader of the Reform UK group on Staffordshire County Council.
“What we have achieved here is incredible. From a standing start we now have full control of Staffordshire County Council.
“The people of Staffordshire have given us a clear mandate for serious change and we fully intend to deliver that.”
So, Tamworth’s Ian Cooper, and former election agent to Ken Clarke, to be Leader of SCC and Cannock’s former nightclub owner, Martin Murray – who had nodded in support when County Council Leader, Phil Atkins, was saying how well-run the council was in a BBC interview – is to be his Deputy. The Annual County Council meeting will be interesting to view on May 22nd on the County Council’s webcast live or later.
What the Conservatives, now as the main opposition again, may regret is restricting the number of questions members can table at Full Council – just one per councillor – and not giving the opposition the role of Chairs of Scrutiny committees as Phil Atkins had promised to do when they were last in opposition but reneged after getting control.
Tell everyone how you intend reducing council tax and improving services as you said you would on your leaflets
Being a County Council electorate representative does mean putting in the hours looking at the nitty gritty of residents’ parochial concerns and worming one’s way around the miasma of Council officialdom in order to move the metaphoric mountains that inhibit actual day to day solutions. The lofty political rhetoric has no value whatsoever when solving nitty gritty front line problems.
My experience of our former County Councillors was that they will quite willing to get their hands dirty at ground level in order to move local issues and private lives took a back seat. Let’s hope that our green behind the ears Reform representatives will not be found wanting with the boring bog standard roles that they have taken on and they are not overwhelmed by how much it impacts on what private life remains. Spouting Reform rhetoric will always seem more glamorous than putting on the work gloves and doing a stint with local litter pickers as our former County Councillors used to do. (Yes, they did
Pound Shop politician. If Temu did council leaders, they’d deliver Ian Cooper.