New leader of council vows to turn authority around

Tory Councillor Peter Mullineaux was voted in as the new leader at a special meeting on Thursday, following the resignation of Coun Margaret Smith.

He is determined to make the council one of the best in the country, after several months high-profile criticism about failings in the taxi licensing department.

The retired engineer, said: “There’s no doubt that it has been an extremely difficult time for the authority in recent months, and I regret any instances where residents feel we have not lived up to the high standards they rightly expect.

“What is important now is that we learn valuable lessons from what has happened and start to push forward and really look to the future.”

In order to do this and improve staff moral, says he will put in place recommendations made by the scrutiny committee, and hopes to work more in unison with Labour and Liberal Democrat members.

He said: “This is not about political point scoring, this is about moving forward as a council.”

Coun Mullineaux is keen to point out that despite the recent investigations, it has been “business as usual” for most, including staff signing off plans in the last week for a £3.5m regeneration of Bamber Bridge and giving a green light for improvements at Worden Park.

Paying tribute to the workforce, he said: “We have an extremely talented and hard-working team of officers who have continued to deliver despite uncertain times.”

He said he is determined to be “open and transparent” with residents, and says commissioning independent reports and scrutiny reviews shows this is already the case.