CONSERVATIVES have taken over leadership of Maldon District Council - with Cllr Simon Morgan voted in as the new leader by just one vote.

Former council leader, Independent Cllr Richard Siddall, was ousted on Thursday (14 May) at the authority's Statutory Annual Meeting by the Conservative group, supported in the vote by a small group of rival Independents and the two Reform councillors, who recently defected from the Residents Alliance. The final vote count for the leadership was 16 for Cllr Morgan and 15 for Cllr Richatrd Siddall.

The Liberal Democrat Group are now the official opposition on the council as the second largest group.

The authority, which remains in a no overall control position, was previously led by one of the Independent groups.

The very closely split voting continued through the meeting, with new Conservative Chairman Ron Pratt using his casting vote to make a number of decisions.

Both of the Reform councillors ended up with key positions on the council's three main committees, with Cllr Adrian Fluker taking the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, nominated by Independent Cllr Linda Haywood and voted in with the support of the Conservatives and the Chairman's casting vote against Lib Dem Cllr Nick Spenceley.

Cllr Haywood was then voted into the Vice Chair of that committee.

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Independent Cllr Wendy Stamp, who last week also retained her seat on Essex County Council, has kept her role of Chair of the Performance, Governance and Audit Committee. She was nominated by Conservative Cllr Maddie Thompson and with no other names put forward, was elected as Chair.

Cllr Stamp then nominated Reform Cllr Matt Neale to serve as her Vice Chair. He was then also voted in against Lib Dem Cllr Nick Spenceley with the support of the Conservatives on the committee.

However, Conservative Cllr Mark Durham lost out on his bid to take the Chair of the Strategy and Resources Committee. Independent Cllr Tony Fittock took the Chair following a nomination from Independent Cllr Mark Bassenger. He was then elected with support from a number of Independent councillors and the Liberal Democrats, as well as non-aligned councillors. Independent Cllr Mark Bassenger, nominated by Lib Dem Cllr Paula Spenceley, was voted into the Vice Chair of that committee in a similar manner.

Early on in the meeting, when raising a point of order over clarification of committee seat numbers for each political group, Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition, Cllr John Driver, said: "Now that it is clear we have a Conservative-Reform coalition in administration, we have some issues."

But Cllr Morgan told the meeting: "There is no coalition between the Conservatives and Reform."

Cllr Fluker also made the same point.

The Deputy Leader of the Council is now Conservative Cllr Maddie Thompson and the new Vice Chair is Independent Cllr Jeanette Stilts. The meeting also saw appointment of Chairs to other committees, as well as working group membership and appointment to outside bodies resolved.

The meeting can be viewed here:-