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New Reform County Council leader defends authority’s bare diary

By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter

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The new Reform leadership at Nottinghamshire County Council has been accused of “not doing its job” after key council meetings were removed from its June diary.

The council’s new Reform leader Mick Barton dismissed the criticism as “absolute nonsense”.

Reform UK took control of Nottinghamshire County Council on May 2 in a sweeping victory that saw the party winning 40 out of 66 seats.

Since then, the group has announced Councillor Barton as the authority’s leader and appointed other senior council positions.

Two by-elections for the authority are due – one in Mansfield North on June 12, following the death of candidate Karen Seymour, and one in Newark West after Reform councillor Desmond Clarke stepped down one week after being elected.

Now, Conservative opposition councillors claim it has been a “shambolic start” for the new authority after a number of key council meetings were removed for June.

According to Conservative councillors, June’s Cabinet, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Planning and Rights of Way Committee and Governance and Ethics Committee meetings have all been removed from the diary.

The authority still has five other June meetings scheduled as of today (June 2).

In a statement, Councillor Sam Smith, who leads 17 Tory councillors as the main opposition, said: “This is a shambolic start from Reform.

“Local residents were promised action, change and common sense. Instead, we’ve got silence, confusion and a complete absence of leadership. Scrapping every key meeting in their first full month in charge is not only reckless – it’s dangerous.”

He confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that himself and his team clarified with relevant officers whether certain June meetings were going ahead and found out they were cancelled.

Responding to the Reform authority’s first Full Council meeting on May 22, Cllr Smith claimed there was a lack of clarity over new Cabinet members’ responsibilities despite them “having full access to senior officers” for support.

His statement continued: “There’s no excuse for this. They should be in their offices, speaking to officers, and getting to grips with their jobs. Instead, the car park is empty, and the Council is effectively leaderless.

“This is what happens when you elect people who had no plan and no idea what the job involved.”

He claimed council staff and officers and departments are currently in “limbo” with no clear direction.

Cllr Penny Gowland, Leader of the Labour Group at the authority said the new authority is “simply not doing its job”.

Cllr Gowland said: “The public are already being let down because the business of the council has been put on hold for unknown reasons and this will clearly have knock-on effects on services.

“With newly-elected councillors immediately standing down and now a month of meetings being cancelled, it is clear Reform were never ready for power or scrutiny.”

Speaking to the LDRS in response to Conservative opposition comments, Council Leader Mick Barton (Ref), called the comments “political rhetoric from the opposition”.

He said: “That’s absolute nonsense. We’ve only been here three weeks.

“We’re still setting policies, we’re having weekly cabinet meetings with officers to find out what we’re going to be doing going forward.”