Letter: Why Is This Leadership Change Necessary?

Published on: 6 May, 2020
Updated on: 6 May, 2020

Cllrs Joss Bigmore and Caroline Reeves

From James Walsh

Labour borough councillor for Stoke

In response to: Shock Council Move as Leader Reeves Hands Over Power To R4GV’s Joss Bigmore

I’m still struggling to understand why council leader Caroline Reeves “has to” come to an agreement. Her group won the largest number of seats in 2019 and full council, including the Labour group, voted for her to form the administration.

With the council embroiled in tackling the impact of coronavirus, including earmarking millions of pounds from its reserves, is this really the time for backroom deals over who’s running it? Is it really the time to conduct a reshuffle that Macmillan would have been proud of and cede power to the opposition in one fell swoop?

In the meeting, Cllr Reeves alluded to more detail on this coming soon. I hope this detail is forthcoming, not least because it now transpires that this deal has been in the offing for much of the last year.

I applaud her decision to delay the accession of Cllr Joss Bigmore (R4GV, Christchurch) until September but, as she should know, the ebbing away of her power and authority in the borough has begun. That’s just one of those immutable laws of politics.

In these times, when Guildford needs strong leadership, perhaps the last thing it needs now is five more months of uncertainty.

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