On Wednesday it was decided that the Liberal Democrats would continue to run the City Council for another year.
The local elections on May 4th left all three political parties on 16 Councillors, and no clear winner. In the end a deal was cut between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems took all the Executive / Cabinet Member Postions (which make the majority of day to day political decisions and Labour took the chairmanships of all the Scrutiny panels (these are salaried posts). The scrutiny pannels are limited in that they can only scrutinize and delay cabinet decisions. They cannnot reverse them.
The Conservatives did not take part in the deal and were essentially squeezed out by the two left wing parties who have decided to work together.
The Conservatives felt that the Lib Dems did not have a mandate to continue running the City. They were the only party to lose a Council seat at the elections and the polled least number of votes. Conservatives polled c17,000, Labour c16000, Lib Dem c15,000. The Lib Dem Administration was widely regarded as a failure. It was indecisive and lacking in leadership. Labour was extremely vitriolic towards the Lib Dems during the local elections and it is therefore ironic that they chose to put them back in office for the price of a few chairmanships of Council committees.
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