A crunch decision on who Wirral Council's leader will be is due to be made this week.
Labour lost two seats to the Greens and one to the Conservatives at the recent local elections, leaving the party on just 26 of Wirral’s 66 seats. That is well short of a majority and just two ahead of the Conservatives.
This could put Labour councillor Janette Williamson’s leadership of the local authority at risk. On Wednesday at 6pm in Wallasey Town Hall, a crunch meeting of all 66 Wirral councillors will decide whether she stays on.
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This means that as well as ensuring Labour’s 26 councillors back her leadership, Cllr Williamson needs the support of at least eight councillors from other parties in order to stay in power. While it appears unlikely that the Labour councillor will lose control of Wirral Council this week, negotiations between the four main parties are understood to be fraught with tension, making agreement on key issues such as the council’s leadership far harder to achieve.
But it is not just leadership that is on the table. Wirral Council now has several powerful committees which have a big role in making key decisions on policies such as the future of the Woodchurch Leisure Centre, massive regeneration plans in places such as Birkenhead and the future of adult social care in the borough.
Wednesday night’s meeting will give us an insight into the future direction of the council. For instance, Labour has the chair of the environment committee tasked with deciding the future of Hoylake beach. If the party loses control of this committee to the Conservatives, it could lead to a change in council policy, making it more likely that the beach would be raked with the goal of seeing ‘golden sands’ return.
Any changes in the leadership of such important committees could signal big moves in the direction of the council. Another key development to look out for will be the role of the Green Party.
Having boosted its number of councillors, leaping from six to nine in the recent local elections, the party could decide to throw its weight around and ask for more power within committees and more of its ideas to become council policy. Again, this could also signal a major change in the direction of the council, but nothing will be known for sure until Wednesday night.
