New council leader sets out plans to boost services in the Harborough district

The new leader of Harborough District Council has said there are challenging times ahead for the area, but the new council leadership will “collectively and more creatively” secure better services and further funding.

Liberal Democrat councillor Phil Knowles took the reigns as council leader earlier this week, following his nomination by the majority coalition group.

Made up of a combination of the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Green Party, the coalition took control of the council, as no single party won enough seats in the recent election to claim a majority. The local Conservatives did win the highest number of seats, 15, but did not secure enough to claim a majority, as the Lib Dems took 13, Labour three and the Greens three.

This has left the new leadership group, which has been nicknamed the ‘traffic light coalition’ by others, with a majority of four seats. Cllr Knowles said he was delighted on a personal level to be chosen as leader, but realised there “tough time are ahead.”

He said: “I always believe in the fact you have to wait and see what the other ballot box delivers, as you never know how the cards will be dealt and we are in a situation here where we’re in a coalition, which maybe we didn’t expect. I have to say it is proving to be a very cooperative atmosphere, we have, on a personal level, a very good relationship with the Labour and Green leaders and I’ve been very impressed that everyone has a single mind goal to provide the best for the district, whilst working together. We are all committed to this partnership.”

In the run up to the local elections, the Liberal Democrats pledged to fill council service desks and establish an environmental change committee, if elected. Now sitting in the hot seat, Cllr Knowles said the coalition group are looking to prioritise these in the coming months.

He said: “Climate change and environmental issues cut across so many areas of which the council is responsible for. From recycling, to waste collection, all sort of things. One of the first things we have done is to create a new cabinet post centred around the environment and climate change, ultimately leading onto establishing a formal committee for the topic.

“We also need to address things like the leisure strategy, because there isn’t a district wide strategy so to speak. We have also already spoken about the area of customer service at the council and I have already engaged with one of the senior officers at the council about where we are on issues such as telephones, and not getting calls just going to answerphones. We don’t want people walking into the council building also, just confronted by empty desks, these are all things on the plan but we will make further announcements about them.”

The Harborough Conservatives are now sitting as the opposition on the council and have recently selected Councillor John Bateman to be their leader. The Tory group will be able to put up a strong opposition on the council as the single largest party and have said they strive to hold the new leadership to account.

Commenting on this, Coun Knowles said: “When I was leader of the opposition, I always said to the Conservatives that I believe for good governance, you need good scrutiny. So I always advocated to give the role of scrutiny commissioner to a member of the opposition, to ensure a party isn’t ‘marking its own homework’, but this was always refused. We have stayed true to our word and with agreement from all parties in the coalition and all members that it is our intention as a new administration to hand the post of scrutiny commissioner to a Conservative councillor. We want to make sure we deliver the best and this is a step in doing so.”

The council leader added he was very optimistic that this new group can make a real difference to the people of the district, despite the challenges ahead. He said: “We are doing things progressively and doing it professionally. We will work extremely hard to make sure of this. Some of this stuff, such as the cost of living crisis, doctor wait times are unfortunately out of the control of a district council, but we can use our position to lobby to the people of higher power to say this needs to be sorted.

“A good leader is only as good as the team they have around them and I’m privileged to have an excellent team. I have been elected to lead the council and I am very much looking forward to the next four years and deliver for the people. If I wasn’t ready for this role, I wouldn’t have taken it.”