A former Conservative councillor who quit the party after receiving homophobic abuse has been elected as leader of Maldon District Council.

Richard Siddall, now leader of The Maldon District Independent Group, resigned from the party in 2020 after fellow Conservative councillor Adrian Fluker was heard to have said a homophobic remark at a council meeting.

At the time, the authority agreed to suspend Cllr Fluker from some duties after an independent report found he had bullied and harassed Cllr Siddall since February 2019.

This week, Cllr Siddall became Maldon District Council's new leader after being voted in by councillors.

Cllr Siddall said his tenure will be focused on "working informally with other political groups" to pass business through the chamber.

He takes over the district council which has 'no overall control' and admits he will have to employ compromise to run the council.

There are now nine Conservatives, six district support group members, six Lib Dems, six Maldon District Independent Group members and four non-aligned members.

Cllr Siddall told an extraordinary session of the council on June 8: "We are not in a coalition, however we are working informally with other political groups to ensure we administer this council in the right way."

Council finances remain a priority in the face of budget deficits, he says.

He added: "The future of this council is important. We are lucky in terms compared to other councils that we still do have £5m of reserves.

"So, we are in a good position. However, if we do not look at how we spend our money in the way we allocate our money, then in a couple of years time we will be below our minimum reserves - and we don't want that to happen.

"What I feel we need is to ensure our strategy reflects our expenditure and reflects how we look at our services and one of the things I am interested to hear from is the LGA finance peer review.

"We are waiting for that report to come and I think it will really help us ensure we set our strategy and connect that strategy to our finances."

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