The Liberal Democrats will use their votes responsibly to avoid deadlock at Lichfield District Council, their leader has said.
The party saw its numbers jump from one to seven as the local authority moved to no overall control earlier this month.
No agreement was reached between Labour and the Lib Dems to use their combined 24 seats to oust the Conservatives – who now have 23 councillors – from power.
But Cllr Paul Ray, who leads the Liberal Democrat group, said his councillors would use their votes for the good of residents.
“We appreciate that in the days and months ahead our votes could be quite significant, but we will use those responsibly to avoid deadlock because this council needs to operate for the good of our residents.
“Our commitments to residents and to this council are that we will be a vocal opposition, but will work collaboratively with other parties – we think that three parties working together will make this a better council than the one that went before us.
“But that is provided we do see change. Cllr Pullen [Conservative leader] and I have spoken and he is aware of our priorities and that we need the cinema, Birmingham Road Site and leisure centre moving quickly.
“We need to see change on priorities we have campaigned for and have been elected for – improved infrastructure, more affordable housing, leisure for all, bringing more employment to Lichfield and Burntwood, and specific policies to tackle the climate change emergency.
“I say to Conservatives and Cllr Pullen that we need change. This council can’t continue as the last one did and it can’t just be business as usual.”
Cllr Paul Ray, Lichfield District Council
Cllr Ray said that while his party was committed to working with the two other party groups in the council chamber, he remained convinced that an opportunity had been missed.
“We as a group are extremely disappointed that discussions weren’t opened up with us to see if we could put arrangements in place for a Labour-led administration.
“We do see this as a huge missed opportunity for our community – a major point that came up on the doorstep was that it was time for change.
“Cllr Woodward [Labour group leader] and I have spoken and we are at one because we appreciate the arrangement would have had challenges with just a one councillor majority, but we would have liked the opportunity to have seen how we could have got that to work.
“Our community has told us that we need a fresh approach, but that arrangement is not in place.
“But this council still needs a fresh approach under the Conservative-led administration.
Cllr Paul Ray, Lichfield District Council
