This evening, an Extraordinary Meeting at Surrey Heath House has been called, following the resignation of the leader of the new administration.
Cllr David Whitcroft has resigned having served in the position of leader for less than 45 days. The Lib Dems have chosen to elect Cllr Shaun MacDonald as the new leader of Surrey Heath Borough Council (SHBC).
Whilst David's appointment was on an interim basis, awaiting the Frimley Green countermanded election to be concluded, as former Labour councillor Rodney Bates stated, "it would have made sense for him to be in place for an interim 6 to 12 months to support all Cllrs into their new roles." Out of the eight members on the Executive, only two have previous experience in local government prior to the local elections held in May this year.
Business at the extraordinary council was concluded by the Lib Dems within 13 minutes, with this raising questions on whether such a meeting was necessary as this could have easily waited until the next Full Council meeting in July - saving councillors the trip to Surrey Heath House and more importantly, saving residents money.
The manner in which Cllr MacDonald has been appointed raises concerns over the Lib Dems apparent commitment to accountability and transparency, particularly given how Cllr MacDonald was only appointed as Portfolio Holder for Transformation on the 18th May, before suddenly leaving the position in an odd manner without any explanation given to residents. As Rodney Bates stated, "he [now] becomes Leader, doesn't appoint former Leader to anything who in turn sends apologies to the meeting... the Cllr seconding tonight doesn't give any reasons why people should support the new Leader".
As outlined by SurreyLive, Cllr MacDonald was voted in as group leader of the Lib Dem group in a meeting on Thursday 22nd June, replacing Cllr Sashi Mylvaganam who had previously held the role. The reasons for this change have not been disclosed.
The new Executive of SHBC is as follows:
- Leader, including Governance and Corporate Resources: Cllr Shaun MacDonald
- Deputy Leader, and Net Zero, Well-being and Environment: Cllr Morgan Rise
- Economic and Income Development: Cllr Kel Finan-Cooke
- Performance and Finance: Cllr Leanne MacIntyre
- Inclusion and Housing: Cllr Lisa Finan-Cooke
- Leisure, Culture and Community: Cllr John Skipper
- Sustainable Transport and Planning: Cllr Alan Ashbery
- Resident and Community Services: Cllr Helen Whitcroft
With the new Executive, comes a revision to the portfolios and changes to the membership of committees, as outlined within the attached file below.
Commenting, Cllr Jonny Cope said:
"A rather short Emergency Council meeting this evening at Surrey Heath House (all done in 12 minutes….which I’m not sure is a good thing!)
"The main purpose of the meeting was to elect Councillor Shaun McDonald as leader of the Council. This puts Surrey Heath Council on its third leader in as many months!
"The new leader spoke briefly about his plans for the coming year. I have to say it was mainly quite vague commitments but from what I could gather his measurable objectives are as follows:
- To ensure balanced budgets
- A commitment to the Council continuing to progress towards Net Zero.
- Making Camberley more of a destination of choice for retail and socialising (which I take to mean more footfall in the town centre).
"While I wish the new leader all the best I was slightly disappointed he didn’t take the opportunity to flesh out a bit more how he will achieve his objectives and what changes he intends to make at the Council.
"We are now nearly two months from the election and the new administration seems to me to have done very little. I look forward to seeing whether this changes under new leadership and as always the Surrey Heath Conservatives team will be there holding them to account."
