It was all change at Nottinghamshire County Council as councillors said goodbye to their old system of governance by cross-party committees and instead adopted a new cabinet system at the annual general meeting. Councillor Ben Bradley MP was re-elected as leader of the council until 2025, when the next local elections take place.
His cabinet will consist of ten ruling Conservative group councillors who will preside over the key areas of activity such as transport, health, children and young people and finance and there will be four overview and scrutiny committees, which will additionally comprise of opposition councillors, responsible for scrutinising cabinet decisions.
Ambitions for devolved government powers for Nottinghamshire are behind the move to a leader and cabinet model of decision making in order to strengthen the case for devolved powers from central government. The county council had operated a committee-style model since 2012. The new system will mean the cabinet will meet regularly (weekly or fortnightly) so decisions are made quickly.
But not everyone was happy to see Mr Bradley (Mansfield North) voted in as council leader with the council's Labour group abstaining during the vote - although he still took the role by 35 votes to 24. Labour did not put up an alternative candidate.
Speaking after the meeting, Labour group leader, Councillor Kate Foale (Beeston Central and Rylands), said: "We aren’t interested in playing silly games or stunts like nominating an alternative.
"We respect the results of last year’s election, but there is a big difference between accepting the result and endorsing a leader who, in his dual role as MP, is making decisions locally like cutting core funding to the Citizens Advice Bureau that are pushing families in this county to the brink, and also supporting a Government which is ripping up the Nolan principles of standards in public life with the scandalous recent behaviour in Westminster and the seemingly endless fines issued over Covid lockdown parties at Downing Street.
"The people of Nottinghamshire deserve better and we are working hard to see that this leader and cabinet are thoroughly scrutinised until the next elections, when we hope to deliver a Labour county council in 2025."
Councillor Roger Jackson (Southwell) was also voted in unopposed as chairman of the county council for the next 12 months at the full council meeting, with Councillor John Ogle (Tuxford) elected as vice-chairman.
The normally all day meeting was considerably reduced by several hours and finished at lunch-time mainly because the new constitution has still to be active and today's meeting was mainly about making sure the new system was in place.
After the meeting Mr Bradley spoke to Nottinghamshire Live and said that he had made it clear when he became leader originally 12 months ago that things needed to be done differently, more efficiently and with better value for money.
He said: "I would hope that Labour and other groups can choose what they want to talk about and raise with us and there is a golden opportunity to hold us to account.
"I hope the system can help us deliver quicker such as in children's service transformation and also make us more transparent to the public.
"There will be fewer mass meetings but there will be more cabinet and cabinet sub-groups and overview meetings.
"We have tried to work constructively with Labour but at the moment they are irrelevant in the county and when I read those comments from Kate, and some of it is deeply personal, and I think it has proved you have lost the political argument when you resort to being personal."
Mr Bradley said that devolution bid for the East Midlands was still on the cards and that conversations with Derbyshire County, Derby City and Nottingham City councils was continuing, He said: "I don't think there will be a major problem with the upper tier authorities.
"The challenge is to find something that umpteen borough and district councils can engage with. It's too much to ask for everyone to be on board but we need to keep engaged with everyone as much as possible and find things that they can be involved with.
"It's a big opportunity and even if we got the minimal amount of investment out of the deal then for every £1 put in we we will get £13 back but we will put all the figures out in the next few weeks so people can see what is involved."
