Council stalemate dragging on

May 20 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

WIRRAL Lib-Dem leader Simon Holbrook’s prediction there would be “no replays” in the council’s bid to agree a new administration was proven wrong last night.

The three parties on the council failed to agree any formula for forming an administration despite a meeting at Wallasey town hall totalling more than three hours.

They will now meet again tonight in an attempt to hammer out a resolution.

The deadlock emerged after the May 1 election in which Labour lost four seats and ended up with 21 councillors, and the Conservatives won four ending up with 24 councillors and becoming the largest party.

The Lib-Dems had gained a seat but remained in third place with 20 councillors, leaving no party in overall control and all well short of the 34 councillors needed to command a majority on the council.

The meeting had started at 6.15pm and first considered a Tory proposal for them to form a minority administration, which was voted down by Labour and the Lib-Dems.

This was followed by a Labour plan to continue to share power with the Liberal Democrats, excluding the Conservatives from places on the ruling cabinet.

But Lib-Dem leader Simon Holbrook had earlier ruled out continuing this power sharing arrangement after Labour lost seats at the election and the Tories gained to become the largest party on the council.

His party, unsurprisingly given the earlier statement that a Labour-led administration would be “untenable”, voted against Labour’s plan despite the obvious temptation to keep hold of power.

Instead, the Lib-Dems put forward a proposal for a shared cabinet on a proportional basis, with the Tories as the largest minority party.

Each of the three groups’ individual proposals was voted down by the combined votes of the other two parties. Following the meeting, there still appeared to be no consensus among the party leaders about how to resolve the situation, leaving Wirral Council in limbo.

liammurphy