(Updated with corrections, comment from Jon Barry, 5/2/09): Labour councillor Abbott Bryning is the new leader of Lancaster City Council after Councillor Roger Mace resigned the position during today’s full Council Meeting.
Mace cited continual sniping and political point-scoring among some of his cabinet colleagues as reasons for his departure.
After discussing options, various councillors were proposed for new Leader, with Labour councillor Abbott Bryning duly elected after Morecambe councillor Evelyn Archer was knocked out in first round of voting, followed by Green Party councillor Jon Barry in the second.
Bryning won the postion by 25 votes to 24, the Tories all voting for him, returning the favour of Labour voting en masse for Roger Mace the first time round.
Had Jon Barry been elected, he would have been the first Green leader of a council anywhere
in the country.
Mace (pictured right), a retired Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance who became Leader of the Conservative Group on the Council in April 2006, had previously stated his hope to see “more co-operation between councillors of different groups” during his term of office. (He has since publshed a full statement citing his reasons for resignation, see news story)
Mace has been the representative of Kellet Ward on Lancaster City Council since 1999 and is a City Council representative on the Court of the University of Lancaster.
Recent months have been turbulent for the Council, reeling from the crisis caused by the Icelandic bank shortfall, the closure of amenities such as Morecambe’s Dome and the future of Lancaster Market, all issues touched on in Coun Mace’s final Leader’s Report (PDF format) delivered to today’s meeting.
Abbott Bryning’s election as council leader will not be met with universal approval among local voters.
Bryning, these days a councillor for Skerton East after being booted out of his long-held seat in Bulk Ward by disgruntled voters, not only supports Centros’ plans for the Canal Corridor which resulted in the loss of his seat in 2007, but also fully supported the controversial re-developemnt of the Kingsway site, citing it as a “quality development” after the government decided not to “call in” the decision to give planning approval back in 2004.
After the building of an eight-storey block of flats was given the go ahead in 2007 he’d changed his tune, telling the Lancaster Guardian that “I have been concerned about this site for many years and what we would end up with.”
Morecambe residents will know he was one of six councillors who voted to close the Dome in late 2008, which remains an unpopular decision despite the huge annual loss it was making.
In October 2008, Bryning stated he had “a wholly open mind” about the Canal Corridor development proposals and “would consider the applications in accordance with the Protocol on Planning Procedure contained with the Council’s Constitution.”
As a councillor, Bryning has said he hopes to see positive gains for the area across Lancaster’s “city, coast and countryside” economy, achieved through public and private sector co-operation and goodwill and to encourage civic pride in the City’s traditions and heritage.
Jon Barry has contested Coun Mace’s reasons for his resignation as Leader. “The real reason Roger Mace resigned was because he failed to come up with a budget,” he told virtual-lancaster. “This is the first time I have ever known this happen. He is now trying to blame others when it was his fault and he should be brave enough to reognise that.
“He has now left the district in a complete mess and the rest of us will have to try to pick up the pieces as best we can.”