Telford & Wrekin Council leader: Voters opted for 'hope and positivity'

Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, Shaun Davies, said voters had seen through the opposition’s campaign, which he dismissed as “myth, distortion, denial and lies”.

Conservative leader Andrew Eade said he hoped the borough’s newly-elected councillors would reject “the politics of the playground”, but acknowledged his party was disappointed by the result.

He said he and his party colleagues “put in a tremendous amount of work to put our policies forward, but other issues intervened”.

In the local elections on May 2, Labour increased their seat total from 28 to 36 out of 54 while the Conservative group shrank from 20 to 13.

Speaking after the Telford & Wrekin Council annual meeting re-elected him leader, Councillor Davies said: “Our communities have spoken. They have overwhelmingly placed their trust in me and my group to deliver policies to invest, protect and care for Telford and Wrekin.

Merit

“They have chosen hope rather than fear, positivity instead of negativity. They endorsed a party who focus on finding solutions to problems, rather than a party who find problems with every solution. They saw merit in a campaign fought on facts and rejected a campaign based on myth, distortion, denial and sometimes just making things up.”

Councillor Davies said the election result was a message to the Conservative government “that has sat on its hands whilst our hospital and our NHS is under attack” and West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner “who has hiked council tax without providing a single extra policeman” for the borough.

Councillor Eade said the local election result had been ‘disappointing’. “Like all parties and all candidates, we put in a tremendous amount of work to put our policies forward, but other issues intervened,” he said.

But he said he remembered, when the Conservative group on Wrekin District Council consisted of him and just two other members.

He said he all parties had a responsibility to re-engage the public with politics, and pointed to the low turnout in the May 2 poll. Just 75,128 valid votes were cast in the 2019 local election, compared to 136,290 in 2015.

Councillor Eade said he was guided by something that former Wrekin District Council mayor Ken Corbett said in 1983.

“He said we had all worked hard to get elected, and we were all here to represent the borough as a whole to the best of our ability,” Councillor Eade recalled.

“I can still see him saying that. Lately it seems those thoughtful words have fallen on stony ground, but I honestly hope that that newly-elected councillors will bring an end to the politics of the playground.”