Last updated at 13:16, Wednesday, 17 June 2009

THE likely new leader of Cumbria County Council has spelled out his plans on how the organisation will be run.

CLLR JIM BUCHANAN

Councillor Jim Buchanan, who already heads the Conservative group, the biggest on the authority, is poised to take over the council hotseat at its annual meeting in Kendal tomorrow.

“I’ve been given assurances that I have a majority,” he told the Evening Mail.

Cllr Buchanan’s first job as leader will be to confirm his cabinet.

He is proposing five Conservatives, three Labour members, one Liberal Democrat and one independent.

The elections earlier this month left no party with a majority and overall control of the council.

The Conservatives have 38 of the 84 seats in the council chamber, Labour has 24 and the Liberal Democrats have 16.

There are five independent councillors and one Peoples Party councillor.

Cllr Buchanan said the voters had sent out a message in the elections that they don’t want one political group to be in control of the council. He said the electorate wants them all to work together and he agrees that’s the right way forward.

Councillor Stewart Young, leader of the council’s Labour group, which has been calling for a politically proportionate cabinet, said his group would accept the invitation and take its seats.

Cllr Young is resigned to the fact he will lose his job of council leader on Thursday.

Labour was the biggest group on the council before it suffered a series of defeats in the elections.

But Cllr Young said he hopes to be made the council’s new deputy leader.

Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor Ian Stewart, said they had decided to decline the offer of joining all-party administration.

Cllr Stewart claimed the Tories and Labour had colluded to marginalise the Lib Dems.

He added: “As the only opposition within Cumbria County Council, we will be actively scrutinising the activities of this Con/Lab administration to ensure that they have not forgotten the people they were elected to serve in their eagerness to grab power.”

First published at 11:35, Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk