The new Leader of South Kesteven District Council is Cllr Ashley Baxter, who was voted in at a meeting of the Full Council on Thursday.
Cllr Baxter, who steps up from his role as Deputy Leader, was voted in by 29 votes to 25 (with one abstention) ahead of Conservative Cllr Graham Jeal, who is part of the South Kesteven Coalition Group.
Cllr Baxter takes over from Cllr Richard Cleaver who resigned at the start of the meeting after being in the role since May 2023 when an Independent-led coalition formed a new administration following local elections.
The change was in line with an agreement that there would be an opportunity for the administration to review and the leadership in January 2024.
Cllr Baxter, the Independent member for Market and West Deeping, paid tribute to Cllr Cleaver’s record as Leader.
He said: “This change of leadership is not the result of any crisis or instability, and I don’t intend that it should be the cause of any instability.
“There are 70,000 households that are relying on us to deliver efficient, effective, value for money services.
“We can only do that if we all play our part and work together, cross-party, cross-chamber, members and officers alike. Of course we need constructive abrasion but we all need to remember that ultimately, we’re all on the same team. Thanks for appointing me as Team Captain.”
As a member of the Council’s Cabinet, Cllr Baxter will continue to oversee the Finance and Economic Development portfolios. His full speech is reproduced below.
Cllr Cleaver becomes Deputy Leader and retains the Property and Public Engagement portfolios. His statement to Full Council is shared below.
Other Cabinet members and their responsibilities remain the same:
- Cllr Rhys Baker and Cllr Patsy Ellis, Environment and Waste
- Cllr Phil Dilks, Housing and Planning
- Cllr Philip Knowles, Corporate Governance and Licensing
- Cllr Rhea Rayside, People and Communities
- Cllr Paul Stokes, Leisure and Culture
Cllr Baxter said:
"Thank you, colleagues for choosing me to lead the Council from this point hence.
"Compare and contrast to this time last year, and ask yourself was there ever a more clear-cut case of a poacher becoming a gamekeeper? And a Lincolnshire poacher at that. As any regular listener to the Archers will be aware, it is often former poachers who are the most qualified to be gamekeepers.
"The work begins immediately. And as soon as this meeting is over, I am sure Cllr Cleaver will want to meet with me to hand over the nuclear codes.
"I will then seek an urgent meeting with Cllr Rhys Baker to see if he will recommend me a good tailor!
"I would like to express my thanks to Cllr Cleaver for the honourable way that he has stuck to the agreement we made, with the ‘29’, many months ago. I am, of course, grateful and relieved that everyone else has also stuck to the script. This change of Leadership is not the result of any crisis or instability, and I don’t intend that it should be the cause of any instability.
"Some might try to suggest that 8 months is not long in a Leadership position but Richard , it’s been a busy old time over the last 8 months, I would remind such people that since the last General Election, the average tenure of a Cabinet Member is only 7 months.
"I want to thank Richard, also, for the time and commitment that he has put into the role of Leader since last May. All the meetings, phone calls, WhatsApps, e-mails and other messages that he has handled. Some fire-fighting, some fire-lighting, some handling difficult questions from reasonable people. Some handling reasonable questions from difficult people, and various other combinations of the above.
"Richard has launched the Corporate Plan, navigated us through the Depot proposals, shone a light on the St Martin’s Park situation, steered us through the LeisureSK situation, and helped us to arrive at a decision on the Deepings Leisure Centre. As Leader, Richard has helped us to turn over various stones, lifted up the carpet and opened the metaphorical curtains to allow in the sunlight.
"Talking of which, the people who disparagingly refer to our administration as the ‘rainbow alliance’ have clearly forgotten that rainbows are the result of sunlight entering a storm.
Back in May, some people looked cynically at this motley bunch which they described as former Greens, actual greens, former Labour members, actual Labour members, former Conservatives, actual far-right fanatics, loony-lefties, conspiracy theorists, eco-mentalists, climate deniers and last but not least Liberal Democrats… but we have more to unite us than to divide us. We all have single-minded focus on improving services for residents and, ironically, it is the SK Coalition of Conservatives and neo-Conservatives which seems to be struggling, and failing, to hold themselves together.
"So, to attend to the Terms and Conditions, I can announce that apart from the positions of Leader and Deputy Leader, and as far as it is up-to-me, the membership of the Cabinet, and broadly our designated responsibilities, will remain unchanged until the Annual Meeting of the Council. For avoidance of doubt, I am appointing Cllr Richard Cleaver as my Deputy Leader.
"I look forward to working with Karen Bradford and all the Officers of the Council. I expect robust debate and, I daresay, the occasional disagreement as is healthy in any organisation. But I recognise the that Senior Officers of the SMT have hundreds of years of experience in local government … collectively between them… and we all of us need to respect, appreciate and celebrate these resources.
"I’ve said many times before that this Council Chamber is a much happier place than it was a year ago. When I first elected in 2015, the then new Leader, the Late Cllr Bob Adams, welcomed me as an opposition member and told me that he fully expected that there would be theatricals in the Council chamber, but if I actually wanted to communicate about anything important then I would be welcome to approach him directly. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to operate and one I would like to emulate.
"There are 70,000 households that are relying on us to deliver efficient, effective, value for money services. We can only do that if we all play our part and work together, cross party, cross chamber, members and officers alike. Of course we need constructive abrasion but we all need to remember that ultimately, we’re all on the same team. Thanks for appointing me as Team Captain."
Cllr Cleaver said:
"In May last year, when I was elected, I stood in this spot and stated that I was honoured to have been elected Leader of this Council, and that it was a responsibility which I intended to discharge with a fair and open mind, a full heart, and with great thoroughness until this month – January 2024
"Now with a heavy heart, I must keep my promise and stand aside.
"With a change of leadership coming after only 8 months into our four-year term, I think it is appropriate to paraphrase Winston Churchill, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
"I hope that the values of conscientiousness, creativity, and compassion which I have espoused are now more firmly embedded in the culture of this council than they were eight months ago. There are many challenges ahead, but I am more confident now than I was then that this council can and will overcome them and that we can and will meet our objectives.
"I’m not walking away today.
"I will continue to serve this council and the people of my ward as strongly and diligently as I’ve always done.
"And finally, I should like to thank all those who have supported me over the past months, local residents, relatives, friends, council member colleagues and of course, our council officers whose commitment to SKDC is all too often understated. Thank you to you all."