Popular local councillor Henry Vann, who was re-elected as the councillor for De Parys ward last week, has been appointed group leader of Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats.
He, along with his ward colleague David Sawyer, held the ward for the Lib Dems with 1,044 and 968 votes respectively. Between them, they secured 476 more votes than all the other five candidates put together.
Now, Bedford Borough’s Liberal Democrat councillors have elected a leadership team that they say will “face the challenge of being in opposition”, with Cllr Henry Vann, who was portfolio holder for town centres and planning under former mayor Dave Hodgson, taking the top spot.
“We congratulate the new mayor and his cabinet but we are determined to stand up for local residents [and to] fight to protect local services from cuts…” said Cllr Vann, also commenting that his group believes the Conservative manifesto is full of “uncosted promises”.
Friday’s long and often arduous election count ended with Conservative Tom Wootton taking the mayoral seat, and Labour becoming the opposition after securing the majority of seats on the council.
The council itself, therefore, has no overall control with ward councillor figures remaining similar to those in the 2019 election. A party would need 24 seats to gain control.
- 14 Labour councillors (+3)
- 13 Conservative councillors (+2)
- 13 LibDem councillors (-2)
- 3 Green councillors (+1)
- 2 Independent councillors (+1)
(change from 2019)
Cllr Michael Headley, who was also re-elected in Putnoe, was elected as Deputy Leader.
“We are ready to provide the constructive scrutiny that the public deserves after a staggeringly close election and an evenly balanced council on which each of the three main parties have a very similar number of councillors,” added Cllr Vann.
