At the annual meeting of the Isle of Wight Council last night (Wednesday) elections took place to appoint committee chair positions within the local authority.
Councillors voted to re-elect Cllr Jonathan Bacon (pictured left) as the leader of the Council for the second year running, as well as also re-electing Cllr Charles Chapman as Chairman. Cllr Bacon is said to be delighted with the decision, which provides a period of stability to council affairs during the final year of the Council term prior to elections in May 2017.
Last night’s meeting has prompted Labour’s Geoff Lumley to accuse the Conservatives of being ‘frit’. After Cllr Dave Stewart’s new alliance of Isle of Wight Councillors declined his nomination as Leader, Labour Group leader Cllr Geoff Lumley has branded them as ‘spineless’.
Cllr Lumley has today said:
“This new alliance of the pro-austerity Right now has a clear majority on the Council and given their constant criticisms of the administration’s attempts to recover from the last dreadful Tory legacy, their supporters on the island would surely have expected them to take over the leadership.
“However, they made no attempt to take the leadership so I tried it for them. I was of course absolutely certain that Cllr Stewart would decline as he hasn’t a clue how to get the Council out of its financial predicament. He did decline and when it came to a vote to confirm the current Leader Cllr Bacon, Cllr Stewart actually voted for him. Effectively a vote of confidence from the leader of the opposition.
“Given they will claim they can better run the Council at next year’s elections, it is surely spineless not to offer that to Islander now. Why are they making Islanders wait ? Is it that they are, in the word of one of their past party leaders, frit?”
The following elections took place:
Chairman of the council: Councillor Charles Chapman.
Vice-chairman of the council: Councillor Lora Peacey-Wilcox.
Leader of the council and chairman of the Executive: Councillor Jonathan Bacon.
Scrutiny Committee: Councillor Dave Stewart.
Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Sub committee: Councillor Richard Priest.
Children’s Committee: Councillor Conrad Gauntlett.
Environment and Transport Select Committee: Councillor Jon Gilbey.
Economy and Tourism Select Committee: Councillor Wayne Whittle.
Audit Committee: Councillor Stuart Hutchinson.
Planning Committee: Councillor Bob Blezzard.
Licensing Committee: Councillor Julie Jones-Evans.
Appeals Committee: Councillor Colin Richards.
Employment Committee: Councillor Geoff Lumley.
Isle of Wight Pension Fund Committee: Councillor Ivor Warlow.
