When we get to the end of the current term for the council, I sincerely believe the greatest achievement of this administration is that the council has actually financially survived that long.

The council has teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and, despite claims to the contrary, it is an absolute fact.

There a number of factors that have contributed to that situation, not least the scale of the cuts from central government and the successful rates appeal from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which completely stripped council reserves.

My belief is that the council has been underfunded, but this was a rather difficult argument to make when the previous administration accounts revealed an underspend of its budget of approximately £5m for the period 2011-15.

As it transpired, those figures were far from correct and we have had to find £13m to cover the poor financial management from that period to fill the black hole that was created.

We are now, as acknowledged by our auditors, able to make informed decisions and we are making representation to government about fair funding to enable the council to deliver first class services.

We are also in conversation about an agreed way forward to address the flawed historic Private Finance Initiative on the council building that is currently crippling our finances.

I have always felt the best way forward for Copeland was to take the politics out of council business and work together collectively for the common good.

For two years with Labour led by Lena Hogg and the Tories led by David Moore, we have done just that and made huge progress. Labour’s contribution to that progress was significant, despite the agitation from a minority of their councillors who continually tried to undermine both the coalition and their own group leader.

The Copeland Labour Executive has now had a complete change of personnel. If that had happened earlier, we would have seen a far more pragmatic approach and little of the nonsense we have seen over the last 18 months that has split the Labour Group wide open.

The other great achievement of this council is the prioritisation of the social issues that blight our borough, and the partnerships and investment we have made in addressing them

Social isolation, children in poverty, domestic violence, food deprivation, are just some examples of the challenges we are tackling as a council.

We are in an incredibly challenging environment and all councillors should be part of the solution, rather than add to the problem. It is time to put the best interests of Copeland first.