Liberal Democrats look to the future in running City of York Council (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

Liberal Democrats look to the future in running City of York Council

June 1, 2007 9:08 AM

After May's election, no single party was left with a majority of the seats on the Council (there are 19 Lib Dems, 18 Labour, 8 Conservatives and 2 Greens) but it was still necessary to form an administration to run the city.

For the good of our city, Liberal Democrats wanted to form an 'all party administration' shared between all four parties, based on the number of councillors in each of them. However, the proposals for an all-party executive were rejected by Labour because they wanted to stay in opposition, yet the Conservatives would not join a formal coalition with the Lib Dems.

And there was still a city to run, which requires leadership (everyone cannot be an opposition party!). So, to try to prevent a permanent stalemate and to allow policies and actions to be carried forward, an agreement was reached among the four party leaders. This agreement is expected to run for 12 months and all four parties have signed up to it. We hope that the agreement will hold and that all parties will act responsibly, rather than for short-term political gain, in making key decisions for our city.

In the light of this agreement, the Liberal Democrats have agreed to form a minority administration; hence they were the only party to nominate a list of executive councillors at the annual meeting of Council on 24th May. This list was approved by the meeting and so the Liberal Democrat group has pledged to work for effective co-operation between the parties and to achieve the best possible outcomes for the City of York and its residents.