Today's most viewed
| TALKING POINT | | | EATING OUT |  | | | EATING IN | | | | PAST TIMES | | |
|
|
|
New leader vows to look to future
THE leader-elect of a council whose
leadership has been wracked by
wrangles and in-fighting says he is
looking to the future rather than the
party's recent troubles.
Sunderland University senior politics
lecturer Simon Henig, 38, is the
new leader of the Labour group on
Durham County Council and will be
formally confirmed as the authority's
leader at its annual meeting later
this month.
The Oxford-educated academic,
who is the deputy leader of Chesterle-
Street District Council and is a former
agent of North Durham MP
Kevan Jones, will lead the authority
into the switch to unitary local government.
This will see the creation of an allpurpose
authority that will do the
work previously done by the county
council and the seven district authorities.
The married father-of-two, who
has written several books on politics,
was elected at the first group meeting
following the May 1 elections,
which saw Labour emerge with an
eight-seat majority.
He had been expected to face challenges
from three councillors for the
£25,700-a-year post.
But county council leader Albert
Nugent, a former miner, and Alan
Napier, leader of Easington District
Council, were ruled out because they
were suspended by party bosses in a
dispute about the number of women
candidates fielded in the council elections
in Easington.
Newly-elected Peter Brookes, a former
county council official, who was
part of the so-called Famous
Five who backed former Prime Minister
Tony Blair in his bid to be
Sedgefield MP, had also been a contender.
In the event, he stood for the
deputy leadership and was beaten by
the incumbent Clive Robson, councillor
for Consett North.
On the day, Coun Henig faced a
challenge from Jean Chaplow, councillor
for Deerness Valley, but won by
a substantial margin.
Coun Henig's wife, Katherine, is a
university administrator. Their two
children are Samuel, five, and Lucy,
two-and-a-half.
He said he wanted to lead the
council into the new "challenging''
era of unitary government and
give a strong voice for County
Durham.
Coun Henig said he did not want to
comment about the Easington suspensions
- neither councillors Napier
nor Nugent attended the vote -
and said he did not want to rake over
past disputes in the county council
Labour group.
"I'm not looking at what's happened,
or not happened, in the past,
I am talking about the future,'' he
said.
"I am going forward in the best interests
of County Durham.
"We are moving forward. We have
a fresh start.
"We have a huge challenge pulling
together what will be the fourth
largest unitary council in the country.''
He said that he would wait before
deciding whether to commit himself
full-time to the post - there is also a
£10,500 standard allowance given to
all councillors - and leave his university
job.
Liberal Democrat leader Nigel
Martin congratulated Coun Henig,
but said Labour had to "get its act together''
as the move to a unitary
council drew nearer for the sake of
the county and its people.
"The infighting and bickering that
has blighted the Labour group at
County Hall for the past two years
must not be allowed to continue on
the new council,'' he said.
8:21am Monday 12th May 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: George Reilly, Easington on 1:23pm Mon 12 May 08
Henig is saying the right things. The question is whether he can overcome the dinosaurs. If he can, then there is a chance he can make a difference. The key question now is whether the bureacracy will embrace the change or remain wedded to the old ways. Remember in a change you have to have more people benefitting from the change than losing from it AND you have to make sure the winners are vocal in their gains while the losers are well placated. If you fail to do that task you discover how Gordon is suffering from the 10p fiasco.
Henig is saying the right things. The question is whether he can overcome the dinosaurs. If he can, then there is a chance he can make a difference. The key question now is whether the bureacracy will embrace the change or remain wedded to the old ways. Remember in a change you have to have more people benefitting from the change than losing from it AND you have to make sure the winners are vocal in their gains while the losers are well placated. If you fail to do that task you discover how Gordon is suffering from the 10p fiasco.
Posted by: rob, crook on 7:40am Tue 13 May 08
the fourth largest in the country a couple of hours now and then between lunches easypeesy.
the fourth largest in the country a couple of hours now and then between lunches easypeesy.
Posted by: DB, Durham on 9:38am Tue 13 May 08
I think now is the time to have an elected mayor for Durham County Council. It's alright labour saying who will be in charge, but I think the electorate should have a say.
I think now is the time to have an elected mayor for Durham County Council. It's alright labour saying who will be in charge, but I think the electorate should have a say.
Posted by: see, durham on 9:51am Tue 13 May 08
lets hope that if we ever do have a mayor of durham county it is not sabotarged by the right wing labor party as was the leader vote , i feel as an electorate we our loosing our democracy to the buissness people in durham, lets get back to old style labor when you knew the person in the seat would fight for the working class, old , vunerable, children andf the hard working british man.hate to keep having to repeat it but the man for the job was albert nugent
lets hope that if we ever do have a mayor of durham county it is not sabotarged by the right wing labor party as was the leader vote , i feel as an electorate we our loosing our democracy to the buissness people in durham, lets get back to old style labor when you knew the person in the seat would fight for the working class, old , vunerable, children andf the hard working british man.hate to keep having to repeat it but the man for the job was albert nugent
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
