Council Leader vows to be ‘open, honest and transparent’

Council Leader, Councillor Colin Lambert

The Leader of the Labour group, Councillor Colin Lambert, says he hopes to “rebuild trust” whilst remaining “more open, more honest and more transparent,” as his group continue to run the Council.

Labour took over the Council reins in January as a minority administration and last week came out victorious from the local elections.

On election night they retained eight seats and won a further seven, leaving them with 29 seats on the Council. Two defections from the short-lived Independent Alliance party earlier this week eventually gave the Labour group the overall majority they needed.

Speaking about the magic number, Councillor Lambert said: “Thirty-one gives us the stability now to begin the process of rebuilding the borough.”

Councillor Lambert once again recognised the need to re-build trust with people in the borough following in-fighting amongst Councillors.

He said: “The fighting has been in Rochdale and in one particular party, Councillors across the borough and across the parties have to rebuild the trust I spoke about before the election.

“Any Councillor who behaves in a silly and disruptive manner to the process is doing a disservice to the borough.

“We need to be focused, positive and clear in our vision.”

He continued: “Since January this administration has been more open, more honest and more transparent and we will continue that. The public consultation about what the Council will look like in 2014 will be listened to.”

Councillor Lambert said there are still “difficult decisions” to make.

“There is £82million of potential spending to be cut – we have to focus on what our community need and want,” he said.

Councillor Lambert concluded: “As a majority administration we now need to convince people what we are doing in terms of action and behaviour.”

“Full Council on Wednesday will see structural changes to committees.

“Early summer will see proposals for structural change of the Council with reductions to Town Hall bureaucracy and more spent on delivering services.”