Wirral’s Lib Dems decide today who to support in new council




WIRRAL’S Lib Dems were today deciding who they will support to form a new council administration.

They have held meetings with both Labour and the Tories – neither of whom have enough seats to control the council – as Lib-Dem leader Cllr Simon Holbrook seeks to negotiate the best deal.

A decision must be made before the council meets tonight when it is due to elect a new leader.

The Lib-Dems were in a coalition with Labour until this month’s elections.

Cllr Holbrook said: “As a group we have to make a decision we think is in the best interests of local people and the borough so a stable admin--istration is formed.

“It must put through the measures which may be necessary given the spending reductions the government is likely to impose, especially following the emergency budget.

“We believe we should join an administration. We have started talks and had one meeting with Labour and one with the Conservatives.

“I do not want to say anything about the details of those talks. But we have been looking at what basis they would be looking to form a joint administration.

“Over the weekend our group talked about this and sought to make a decision in time for the council meeting on Monday night.

“In the event we fail to reach agreement with either, then the possibility of a minority administration would come back into play.

“But we do not think that would provide the stability necessary and is something we would rather avoid.”

At the election earlier this month the Lib-Dems lost five seats while Labour gained four.

The Tories added an extra two seats taking their total up to 27 and maintaining their status as the biggest single party on the council.

Cllr Holbrook said: “We got a lot closer to a final decision over the weekend. We were working towards having a decision by the council meeting on Monday. Delay beyond that starts to put some council business at risk.

“You could say it is decision time.”


THE ECHO

Conservative and Lib-Dem coalition is elected to run Wirral Council




WIRRAL Council has its first Conservative leader in 24 years tonight, as part of an alliance with the Liberal Democrats.

Cllr Jeff Green, leader of Wirral's Conservative group was elected during a council meeting at Wallasey Town Hall earlier this evening.

He was elected by 39 votes to 20. There was one abstention and five councillors were absent.

Lib-Dem leader Simon Holbrook was elected deputy council leader.

Labour's outgoing council leader, Steve Foulkes expressed his disappointment with the new administration, branding it a "Coalition of Losers."

In his election speech, Cllr Green paid tribute to the work carried out by Wirral's Labour/Lib-Dem council over the last three years.

He also promised to work 'cross-party' with all of his colleagues within the council.

He told the Globe afterwards: "I'm delighted to be the first Conservative leader of Wirral Borough Council in 24 years.

"I think it shows that, not only are we prepared to engage in the new politics nationally, we want to do it locally, too.

"I have been very impressed at the areas of agreement we have found with the local Liberal Democrats, especially on our agenda of giving power to residents.

"Making sure that they are involved in decision-making and making sure that we engage in meaningful consultation with local residents is at the heart of our agreement.

"What we did is offer an open and generous partnership with the Lib-Dems. We said that we would like to speak to them about our various manifestoes.

"We engaged in that discussion and it became clear that there was lot of overlap in agreement of where we saw Wirral going forward.

"There's also a degree that we would have something that would be sustainable, because there are big challenges ahead."

Looking to the future, Cllr Green admitted that big decisions lay ahead.

He said: "Everybody now knows that the Labour Party's spent all the money. That is going to have an affect on local government and some big decisions are going to have to be made going forward.

"My commitment is that we need to make sure we are involving the public in those decisions. We're keen for that to happen."

Labour leader Steve Foulkes, whose party has run the council in coalition with the Liberal Democrats for the last three years, said: "We are naturally very disappointed that the Liberal Democrats have chosen to recklessly abandon their principles and prop-up a Conservative administration.

"The decision is even more startling, given their frequently-stated opposition to Tory policies, and the fact that their own beliefs have always been much closer to Labour than the Conservatives, as witnessed by their previous successful coalition with Labour.

"Frankly, this is a deal that smacks of desperation.

"In the recent elections, Labour won four seats and the largest share of the popular vote and is clearly on target to move forwards full majority control of the Council in the future.

"In contrast, the Liberal Democrats lost four seats in the last election and gained none.

"The Tories won two from the Liberal Democrats and lost two to Labour, failing to take any of the Labour wards they had targeted so fiercely in the run-up to the elections.

"I can only conclude that between them they have looked at recent results, recognised that their best interest lies in the new system which could give the Tory leader and his Lib Dem deputy up four years in power, and decided to use the national situation as a smokescreen for naked self interest.

"This must be the ultimate Coalition of Losers"


THE GLOBE

It is interesting that the Liberals, who firmly believe in proportional representation, went the other way when it suited them.

goes to show the lib dems will jump into bed with the party in power .

Mnd you, the last time the Tories were in power, government expenditure was much more generous with non-labour controlled councils, this "apparently" was just coincidence.

Guessing that any chance of coalition in the near future will be con/lib, orders from the top.

It must have been the same kind of coincidence that there was more goverment spending in labour controlled councils during the last 13 years. STRANGE THE WAY THE BALL ROLLS AT TIMES.