MONTHS of political upheaval at Maldon District Council (MDC) will reach a climax next week with a meeting that will decide who the new leader and deputy leader of the authority will be until May 2021.

The council's Annual Meeting (also known as the Statutory Annual Meeting) will be held on Thursday, 5 November at 6pm. The agenda published today on the council's website contains an item where members will be asked to vote to either ratify current council leader designate, Conservative Councillor Elaine Bamford, as leader – or to elect a new leader.

As the number of Independent group members at MDC is now greater than the number of councillors in the Tory group at the council, it is possible that the new leader of the Independents, Councillor Wendy Stamp, could be a strong contender for the council leader role. It is therefore now highly likely that how the non-aligned councillors vote will be critical.

The current political make-up of the council is:

Conservative group: 9 members

Independent group: 15 members

Non-aligned Conservatives: 6

Vacancy :1

This crucial annual meeting will also decide who the new deputy council leader will be before going on to the issue of which councillors will sit on different committees, where key decisions on matters including planning applications, licensing applications, council resources and disciplinary issues will be made in the months to come.

The meeting will also see the selection of members for various working groups and to represent MDC on outside bodies.

The meeting will be held online at 6pm and any member of the public can view it live. It will also be recorded for later viewing.

The links for the meeting and subsequent recording will be available on the Maldon District Council website here.