U-turn as Shropshire Council leader reveals plan to stay on

Councillor Malcolm Pate had previously said he expected to stand down at this year's elections in May.

The Albrighton councillor has been in charge of Shropshire Council since December 2015 after being voted in as leader of the authority's ruling Conservative group following Keith Barrow's shock resignation.

Councillor Pate said he had reconsidered his plan to step down after the death of his wife Sue in September last year.

He said: "I have notified my group to the effect that I want to remain as leader. The main reason I decided to pack it up in the first place was because my wife was getting more ill and I thought I would be spending a lot more time with her.

"Of course that situation changed in September and I have had a lot of people asking me to reconsider, so I have listened to a lot of what my group has been saying and other people, a couple of our MPs, and the chairman of Marches Local Enterprise Partnership.

"I have considered it and decided I would perhaps like to finish the job I started."

Councillor Pate would need to be formally confirmed in the post by members of his own party, choosing to re-select him as Conservative group leader following May's local elections.

Councillor Pate said he is pleased with the direction of the council, and wants to build on the changes he has introduced.

He also said that he would be unlikely to serve the full term of four years as leader, and would intend to continue for the "next couple of years".

He said: "I am not doing it out of personal ambition because I have already done it and got the T-shirt. My sole interest is in the people of Shropshire and Shropshire Council performing the best it can."

"Since I took over last September, we have got a corporate plan which can measure performance as we go forward, we have got an industrial strategy coming to fruition, an IT strategy. We have got the boat turned around and moving in the right direction.

"There are still a lot of financial problems to get over which will take a lot of time to sort out but Shropshire is held in high regard nationally in certain aspects.

"We deliver the most efficient social care services at the least cost for any other council and we have councils coming to look at that and I want to extend that across our services and enhance the council from a national perspective."