The leader of the Conservative group on the Isle of Wight, Councillor Suzie Ellis, has laid out plans to take control of County Hall next week, as well as revealing the group’s vision to offer the local authority a ‘fresh direction’.
As previously reported by Island Echo, the current leader of the Isle of Wight Council, Councillor Lora Peacey-Wilcox, is to step down next Wednesday ahead of a vote of no confidence against her that evening. The Conservatives say that the current Alliance administration has faltered and that change is now needed – and this must go beyond just shifting positions within the Alliance.
It has been confirmed this morning (Tuesday) that the motion of no confidence put forward by the Conservatives has been withdrawn but that Councillor Ellis, who represents the Central Rural ward, will still be seeking election as Council Leader.
In a statement, Cllr Ellis has explained why she believes the council needs a change of administration.
“As I previously outlined, the Council – and indeed the Island – needs leadership which is prepared to make the right – and sometimes difficult – decisions in a timely manner. Such leadership must also enjoy the support of a wider set of members across the Council Chamber. The dwindling numbers within the Alliance Group suggest that it does not enjoy majority support.
“Having spent many weeks discussing the proposed way forward with councillors from across the Chamber, I am confident that there is a consensus about the need for change. Members will have a choice next Wednesday when they vote to elect a new leader of the local authority. This decision, having been made by councillors elected by the public, will give democratic legitimacy to whoever is leader from this point forward.”
Cllr Ellis has also set out how she plans to lead the local authority.
“With change must come collaboration, and a recognition that for the remainder of this council term it will continue to be the case that no one group has a majority.
Article continues below this advertisement “Although the Conservatives are the largest group, we must continue to work with all members and look carefully at how those outside of any administration which is formed can also be involved. If I am elected as Council Leader next week, I would welcome continued input from all councillors about how best this could be achieved.”
8 proposed priorities for the council have been outlined which, Cllr Ellis says, will continue to evolve over the coming weeks and months to form a new Isle of Wight Council Corporate Plan.
- Set a robust and balanced budget, keeping council tax increases to the lowest possible level, and continuing to make the case to the Government for additional funding
- Create an effective Children’s Service and Education Team, whilst continuing to draw on the expertise and input of Hampshire County Council where possible and needed
- Tackle the increasing crisis in school place planning, having regard for the need to avoid an adverse impact on the funding available for the education of children in viable schools
- Seek consensus on the best way forward for the Island Planning Strategy, having regard for any provisions likely to come into force once the Regeneration & Levelling Up Bill receives Royal Assent – whilst recognising the need to get an up-to-date Island Plan in place as soon as possible
- Unlock the delivery of affordable housing, by overcoming internal cautiousness about investing the £40m borrowing agreed at Full Council almost 18 months ago; working with housebuilders and housing associations to come up with creative solutions and making use of public sector land, and with brownfield or developed land a preference
- Secure progress in major regeneration projects, not least by making the Island an attractive place for inward investment
- Progress the implementation of the Climate and Environment Strategy and harness the potential of the Island’s UNESCO biosphere status
- Working with public and voluntary sector partners to improve joint working, joined-up services and the rationalisation of buildings and operating costs
No decisions about Cabinet Member appointments will be made until after next Wednesday’s vote, it is said. There is the potential that a committee system of governance may be introduced.
Like governments around the world, councils are corrupt, this corrupt Council will be gone soon, only to be replaced by more of the same…
Its easy to say corrupt why don’t you state some facts that can be corroborated or tested in court. rather than some inane comment My be true may not be true, try coming up with some real evidence.
Try opening up your idiotic head, if you don’t know by now that corruption exists in government and councils, you are living in a world of your own……I expect your young and nieve….
Anybody can say that give us actual facts that have been proven
It’s cute that you think having it all read out to you in court makes it “fact” when we all know masons run the place and anyone trying to put an end to corruption tends to disappear either with a puff of smoke or damning reports with the nature equal to this said comment. I went to school with an Ellis and they were posh and had connections to mason
Basically no evidence then
There needs to be a by election. The conservatives where voted out at the last local elections because people have had enough of them. That’s not just locally either. The poison party do nothing but take for themselves and work for themselves. The mess they have made on this island is scandalous. If that be the 2 tier school system, the floating bridge or the mess they made at st Mary’s (what was) roundabout. They have clearly used bullboy tactics to worm their way back in and to top in off they want a convicted criminal to run the council. You really couldn’t make this mess up.
They want to take control so that they can reestablish their schemes to enact, at a local level, the underlying CONservative ideology of transferring as much wealth as possible from the poor and middle class, to the rich…
As has been proven, time and again by Johnson and his chums, as well as his party’s successors, and predecessors, in national government, this lot will happily wallow in a fetid sea of lies and corruption to achieve their aims, regardless of the hardship caused to the rest of the population.
Don’t expect any change with the new lot after the general election, it’s ping-pong politics…..The grass on the other side isn’t any greener……tory Labour, tory Labour, tory Labour……I’m voting the Raving Looney party……
Don’t forget the Ryde bus station abortion, making traffic from the pier have to join the main road right on a pedestrian crossing and a roundabout, after negotiating the speed humps of course.
The there is the wonderful and expensive hundred yards or two of lovely green cycle path which disgorges cyclists and scoter riders straight into the people waiting for busses and just ends at Eastern Roundabout, and it seems it doesn’t suit the lycra wonders as they still persist in riding on the road to hold up traffic or on the pavements despite it being illegal but they know there is no enforcement.
Roundabout! What roundabout? There are no roundabouts along Ryde Esplanade
At the foot of Dover Street
That is NOT a roundabout! I hope you are not a driver!
Clearly not a very perceptive “road user”
The tories are worse than the lot we have now. How can they take control without a vote. Corrupt to the core.
Of course they can’t take control without a vote. That’s what next weeks vote is all about! Did you bother reading the article?
We the plebs of the isle of wight, who are being ripped off left right and centre by the supposed alliance, issue a vote of no confidence in the whole lot of you !!!!!
Grow some brains and B–ls and do what is right for us mere mortals, oh no you can’t do that because you are all selfish glory seeking numptys!!!!!
End of ….
Are you willing to stand?
These clowns seem to think they are MPs in Parliament rather than a bunch of locally elected representatives with simple decisions to make on a p*sspot island. Stop playing these stupid games and just make the obvious, logical, easy decisions without needless, pointless, and endless debates and arguments just because you like the sounds of your own voices. Think about the problems, do appropriate research, formulate logical solutions that make economic sense, present them, and then make decisions. Put processes in place to facilitate planning, decision making, and implementation. Stop all of these games and help the islanders rather than obsessing over power and your own pathetic egos. If you can’t do these things, just push off.
I don’t want another Tory council, since there is nothing new on the table.
But this Alliance council is somehow worse because it made promises to listen to the public, and it never did. Won’t be fooled again.
Then one day, for no reason whatsoever, Hitler was voted into power…
More importantly, he was a socialist….Be careful what you vote for…
You’re right, I’ll vote for a 4channer instead
No he wasn’t a Socialist, did you not go to school?
A far right socialist that’s different.
Yes he was. Nazi is an acronym for “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei”, which means National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
He was a fascist. Socialist in name only.
Like the current Government, who are Conservative in name only.
The only thing theCONservatives want to conserve, is their own grip on the majority of the wealth in the country
The two are not mutually exclusive. Fascism is simply extreme nationalism.
Hitler wasn’t voted into power for ‘no reason whatsoever’
He was voted into power because, in spite of his racist anti-Semitic, homophobic, totalitarian, autocratic ideology and rhetoric, he had a personal appeal and a way of stirring mass hysteria to his propaganda, that he convinced the majority, against all common sense, that that was what they wanted.
A bit like Trump (“Make America Great Again”) and Johnson (“Get Brexit Done”),.. but somewhat more effective.
Unfortunately, we are all now suffering from what Johnson and his CONservative chums have done to this country over the last 10+ years.
Of course, Hitler took advantage of the sorry state Germany was in after WWI. Insane inflation, a collapsing economy, and a bleak future. He blamed it all one group and bigged up his master race ideal. Any of this sound familiar? Watch out! Little Hitlers are still out there.
The country was doing so well under labour before the conservatives got back in wasn’t it – bankrupt and with rampant inflation. Yeah, we really need that again!
Excellent list of priorites Cllr Ellis.
I do hope getting the best out of all 39 Cllrs and working cross chamber puts an end to the time wasting, childish spats we have seen. Doing the best for the island is the only way forward
“Doing the best for the island is the only way forward”
well you’re not going to get that from the CONservatives,..
They only ever do what’s best for themselevs…:-(
Brainwashed
Cllr Ellis Conservative, cross party, no.
So most of the 8 things listed we don’t want/ need but you the CONS think we need you the CONS to think for us and CON us
THE NEW LEADER SHOULD BE VOTED FOR BY THE PUBLIC
You lot were voted out last time so what gives you the right to bypass the voting public?
It’s the only way they can get back into power.
But nobody voted in the current administration either. It’s just a ramshackle alliance of disparate independents cobbled together for no other reason than to displace the biggest single party returned at the last election and it’s really not been very good!
“The dwindling numbers within the Alliance Group suggest that it does not enjoy majority support.”
and the latest by-election results suggest that the CONservatives definately don’t have ‘majority support’!
Presumably Ms Ellis and her cronies think she can doa be tter job than the “pocket rocket”.
We’ll see.
Just hot air and promises which will never succeed, no mention of making the tough decision to scrap the floating bridge to save taxpayers hard earned money
No matter who is in charge very little will change, if the consrvatives take back control how long will it take to put right everything the alliance did, if your having a robust and balanced budget that means you will not put the council tax up next year, all building should take place on brownfield sites any only then if you need more and I doubt you do then use green fill., to improve joined up working, listen, you cannot even do that within the councillors that exist why should anyone outside of that bubble listen to you
Don’t forget to buy more places on the mainland with the public money!! Feather, nests and brown envelopes run to mind!!!!!
Always working for the party and not the people. The party comes first. The result is spending more time point scoring and fighting that making the island better.
Get the alliance of secrets out. They’re all poor, but conservative don’t rob taxpayers so heavily.
Alliance, lib just support benefit babes, boat arrivals and forget us.
This is just so wrong. Never trust a Tory. Now they want to turn the final screw on us. On the plus side, I doubt very much if they will ever win another general election.
Question : anyone smell a rat .. and more false promises from the CON-servatives ..
Just how many ‘new directions’ are the Isle of Wight Council going to take , before someone actually moves things forward , instead of the squabbling and back- stabbing amongst various Councillors over the years.
For goodness sake people in power at the council , just get it together and work together with others. Working together will achieve better outcomes.
Just how much money , time , effort and damage to our lovely isle has been wasted over the last 22 years at least.
Set a robust and balanced budget:
Says it all in one sentence, Tory policy historically balanced to the side of the already ‘haves’. The general public mean nothing, they never have.
All councils should be run totally free from any political bias so no Conservative Labour Lib Dem and the like. Every councillor in the country should be independent
The people of the IOW are being played again by conservative manipulation. Really though, this is just a battle of egos. None of them give a toss about the people who keep the island ticking over, they only care about what’s in it for them and the greedy people with too much already.
One priority missing is more reservoirs on the Island, in 15 years time or less there will be a shortage of water throughout the world and this should one of all Councils priorities. So whoever ends up running the Council needs to take this into consideration and try to stamp out bullying tactics within all departments of the Council, yes they do exist and the actions taken against Lora PW shows that. All the issues were not as stated but for the benefit of the Conservatives to take control again especially as 2024 elections predicted.
With the level of disgust and disatisfaction clearly being expressed below I can’t help wondering how all these councilors get votes. Are there no better choices at election time and if not why don’t some of the complainers here put themselves forward for election – you obviously know you can do a better job for us and it would appear you would stand a very good chance of being elected.
God help us and all who reside here! Still, you won’t be in for too much longer.
Councillor Ellis sounds so Righteous who is controlling her. First she stated that she was not going to put the no confidence vote in then changes her mind. Who pressured her. What everybody fails to see is the Budget cuts centrally have made it impossible for the current council to run services. Oh and for all the critics out there if you think you can do a better job step forward.
I see the CONservatives have usurped their way back into power again by unelected means… I know the Alliance had it’s troubles but it would be better than the self serving Tory lot who were voted out. Get ready for more cuts to your services! Judging by the reaction of readers here they’re not welcome and should not take power, i feel for Laura being ousted in this manner by bullies.
Soon there will be 1 world Government