Whoever forms the new Isle of Wight Council administration will have a ‘huge job’ on their hands, the leader of the Conservative group at County Hall has said ahead of an Isle of Wight Council leadership vote.
Speaking to Ventnor’s annual town meeting last week (Thursday 21st May), Councillor Ed Blake noted the local authority’s position of no overall control – no party having more than half of the council seats – and suggested some kind of ‘minority’ or ‘merger deal’ will come together.
On Wednesday (27th May), Full Council is due to vote on who takes over from Phil Jordan, leader of the council from September 2023 until being ousted from his Ryde North West seat by Reform UK’s Reuben Loake in the 7th May local elections.
Cllr Blake said:
“We’ve got our AGM on Wednesday next week…a new administration will be put together.
“We still have no overall control as it has been the situation since 2021 so it will be either a minority or some kind of merger deal that comes together – I don’t know how that’s going to go.
“Whoever comes in is going to have a huge job tackling things like our Island Roads contract and dealing with our ferries.
“We’ve got devolution on the horizon and that is the transfer of power supposedly down from government to local areas.
Article continues below this advertisement “However, that is manifesting itself for us because we’re already a unitary authority.”
He said that any powers would not be given to the Island but taken away to a mainland-based authority covering Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The councillor went on to raise the planned Hampshire and Solent mayoral election which was due to be held on the same date as this year’s County Hall poll but has been delayed until May 2028.
When it comes, it will constitute a ‘huge change’ for the Isle of Wight and Ventnor Town Council, he added.
We already read earlier today about the 4 Lib Dems forming themselves into a “group”.
Now we read Ed Blake, the “leader” of the 2 Conservatives “group”, telling us voters what will and what will not, happen.
Both Blake and Garrett of the LDs gave mention to the despicable Island Roads.
Before the election we read that Ian Dore, one of the alleged Independents, strongly condemned the Island Roads contract
With the Reform “group” of 19, which is more like an orchestra than a group, would it not be preferable for them to cooperate with Dore, Garrett and Blake and hope that, for ONCE, the others could be persuaded to stop politicking and coalesce around an administration whose main aim was to bring Island Roads to heel and stop their “Road Closed” preferred choice of operation.
Who knows, maybe there could be other priorities upon which most sensible Councillors could agree
An reform orchestra with plenty of fiddles? Surely not!
We need a leader who STOPS keep raising Council taxes and
addresses the speeding problem on the island.
May I suggest the new leader whoever they should be
takes a trip to Specsavers, then drive round the island and
see for themselves how dangerous island roads are due to
speeding motorists.
Too be honest a trip to the Big Smoke would also be a
good idea so they can see how safe roads can be when
20mph is plenty, plus the installation of cycle lanes.