Opinion: Council Still Awaits Council Leader Decision on Executive Changes

Published on: 27 May, 2018
Updated on: 29 May, 2018

By Martin Giles

White smoke has still not been spotted from the chimney of Millmead House this week despite the necessary departure of Cllr Richard Billington from the Executive to take up his duties as deputy mayor, a move that will require some changes of lead councillor roles.

Cllr Nigel Manning

The rumours are that Council Leader Spooner wants to bring back Nigel Manning (Con, Ash Vale) who has just completed mayoral duties as well another former mayor and leading councillor, Gordon Jackson (Con, Pirbright), on to the Executive.

But promoting two councillors would require sacking at least one existing Executive member. Who could it be? The leader is finding it hard to decide, apparently. Whoever is fired could be yet another disgruntled voice on the Tory backbenches.

Cllr Gordon Jackson

One council insider has suggested it might be Michael Illman (Con, Shalford). His blind loyalty to the leadership even caused him to break his vow to his constituents when it came to opposing the controversial Blackwell Farm development and he was also one of the last off the bridge of the sinking ship that was SS The Village.

Whether his loyalty will be rewarded remains to be seen. He has already suffered the indignity of deselection from the Conservative candidates list for next year’s borough council election, partly because his local branch chairman was unimpressed with his performance as a ward councillor.

Cllr Michael Illman (Con, Shalford), pictured right, in this Conservative campaign newsletter from May 2015.

He rarely, it was said, attended parish council meetings, probably because he was fearful of the rough ride he would be given by parish councillors not so enamoured with all aspects of GBC’s Local Plan.

Although successful with his appeal against the selection panel’s deselection decision, Illman now has to go through the whole selection process again.

His promotion to the Executive two years ago was seen as a surprise by many and his performance in the council chamber has not won universal admiration. We should soon learn if he was only keeping the lead councillor for finance’s seat warm for Nigel, a political heavyweight at GBC, something we on The Dragon suspected at the time of Illman’s appointment.

The smart money, though, is not on a major reshuffle. Some say that within the Tory group there are few suitable for Executive service who want to do it, under the current leadership, in any case.