The first couple of months

With the election firmly in the rearview mirror, it’s been a couple of months now that the new Council has been in place. It’s been a big change to the reelected councilors, as the political balance has seen a huge shift. What was essentially a Conservative controlled Council for nearly 50 years is, for the first time, a Council with a cross party composition. Labour have representation on the Council for the very first time and there is a large group of Independent Councillors who bring a wealth of experience and differing perspective to the mix. In terms of Administration, the largest group is comprised of an Alliance between the Liberal Democrats (of which I am one) and the Green Party. There’s a huge amount of common ground amongst all the various groups, with all of us wanting to deliver a good service to the voters of Wealden who elected us.

The next four years will not be without its challenges, and key amongst those will be the delivery of a Local Plan which will define the number and type of houses (dwellings) to be constructed in Wealden over the coming years. The plan will have effect for something in the order of a quarter of a century, so it’s very important that we all get this right.

Speaking personally, it’s been an exciting and interesting learning curve. Some of the material is very familiar and other areas less so. The first six or so weeks (which are now behind us) was a whirlwind of introductions to Council Officers, the various Committees and seemingly endless hours of in person and virtual training sessions. It’s been a lot to take in.

Given that the Liberal Democrat group is part of the Administration at Wealden, I’ve found myself Chairing the Audit, Finance and Governance Committee (an area that I have some familiarity with through my career history in finance), Vice Chairing the Planning Committee in the North of Wealden as well as sitting as a Member on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The agenda’s for each meeting of the above runs to hundreds of pages so there’s a lot of reading to be done and information to get your head around. That is, however a very important part of the job and it’s vital that we’re all able to contribute meaningfully to the debates and decision making.

August has been a little bit quieter with the summer holidays in full swing but my email inbox has been pinging away with future meeting invites as well as Ward matters to attend to. If you’re reading this and live in Crowborough Southeast then please get in touch if there’s something you’d like to discuss!

Looking forward to the next 4 years.