Councillor Mark Pritchard Elected As Leader Of Wrexham Council

The new Leader and Deputy Leader of Wrexham County Borough Council were elected last night in Wrexham’s first Full Council Meeting webcast.

Only one nomination was put forward for the role of Council Leader, with Councillor Ian Rogers nominating Councillor Mark Pritchard for the role. This nomination was seconded by Councillor David Kelly.

This particular nomination will come as little surprise to many, with Cllr Pritchard’s locally mooted and expected to take over the role. Prior to last night’s election, Cllr Pritchard had acted as Deputy Leader to the former Council coalition.

Cllr Pritchard was elected Council Leader following a majority vote – with 34 councillors voting in favour of the motion and 11 abstaining from the vote. However it has since been pointed out that the number of votes cast for this decision does not match the number of votes cast for the remainder of the meeting.

One nomination was put forward for the role of Deputy Leader, with Cllr Pritchard nominating Cllr Roberts as his predecessor.

Cllr Roberts has previously acted as Mayor of Wrexham, occupying the role for two years. However two months Cllr Roberts was elected as Lead Member for Environment on the Executive Board.

Cllr Roberts was voted Deputy Leader by a majority verdict with 36 councillors voting in favour and 11 abstaining from the vote.

Last night’s Council re-jig follows the news that 10 councillors had left the Labour group and would be joining forces with Mark Pritchard’s Democratic Independent Party.

In the weeks that have followed it has been revealed that the Wrexham Independents would work alongside the Democratic Independent Party. Amusingly the new Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Andrew Bailey referenced our ‘Independents To Work With Independents While Staying Independent’ headline, adding that many had a ‘wry smile’ while reading it.

At present the members of the declared Council groups are as follows:

Independent – 20 seats
Labour Group – 13 seats
Wrexham Independent Group – 8 seats
Conservative Group – 5 seats
Liberal Democrats – 4 seats
Plaid Cymru – 2 seats

The meeting was the first Full Council meeting to be broadcast on the Wrexham Council website. It is not known how many tuned in to watch the meeting, however a debate regarding the webcast has since been started on our forums.  You can take part / read the debate on the Wrexham.com forums here…

UPDATE THURSDAY MORNING: Two statements have been issued today, firstly from the new Council Leader, and second from the Council’s Chief Executive:

Statement from the Leader of Wrexham County Borough Council, Cllr Mark Pritchard: “I am delighted to have been elected Leader of Wrexham County Borough Council to serve the people of Wrexham.

“It is both an honour and privilege to have this role. I look forward to working in partnership with my fellow Councillors across all groupings to ensure that we continue to deliver the outcomes of our Council Plan.”

“In difficult financial times it is important that we stay focused on reshaping our services whilst prioritising the most vulnerable and front line services through our robust financial management.
Whilst we continue to have strong collaborative working at local; regional and sub-regional level I truly believe that Wrexham is a strong place and that it is best for Wrexham for us to continue to stand alone as Wrexham County Borough Council rather than merge with Flintshire County Council.”

The Chief Executive, Dr Helen Paterson has released the following statement to staff this morning:

“Yesterday evening at Full Council the Elected Members elected Cllr Mark Pritchard as the new Leader of the Council and Cllr Ian Roberts was appointed as Deputy Leader of the Council.
They also appointed the following Elected Members to the Executive Board of the Council:- Cllrs A Bailey; David A Bithell; Kevin Hughes; Hugh Jones; Joan Lowe; Carole O’Toole MBE; Mark Pritchard; Ian Roberts; Neil Rogers and Michael Williams.

“The Leader of the Council will determine the number of and announce the portfolio responsibilities of the Executive Board Lead Members at the next Executive Board meeting on Tuesday 7/10/14.
Further details of all the other committee and relevant outside body appointments will be shared shortly.

“We look forward to working with those newly appointed to their roles as we continue to deliver the priorities of our Council Plan and reshape our services whilst prioritising the most vulnerable and our front line services.”