How the committee system will work at Worcester City Council: details of dramatic shake-up revealed

For the first time ever the authority is expected to have a Labour leader and a Conservative deputy leader in a dramatic overhaul - or vice versa.

The Worcester News can also reveal how Worcester Green Party has come out of the painstaking negotiations a big winner, with Councillor Louis Stephen set to chair a powerful 'Policy and Resources Committee', which will oversee council tax collection and the all-important five-year City Plan.

In May the Labour cabinet is being axed, and replaced by old-fashioned committee decision making for the first time since in 17 years.

In recent weeks Labour, Conservative and Green politicians have held private talks to draw up how it will work.

With 17 Conservative, 16 Labour and two Green councillors, all three parties will get seats on a series of committees, which will be tasked with making decisions.

There will be three main 'policy' committees, one for the environment, one for communities and the main one, for policy and resources chaired by Cllr Stephen.

The influence of the policy and resources committee will be significant, as the City Plan is the cross-party five-year document spelling out the council's main aims.

It will have 12 or 13 councillors sitting on it, including two vice-chairs - one each from the Conservatives and Labour.

The communities committee will cover issues like housing, homelessness, sport and leisure, heritage and culture, CCTV, health and community safety.

It will also oversee Freedom Leisure, which managed the £10.5 million Perdiswell swimming pool and other sports centres on behalf of the council.

The environment committee will vote on decisions affecting parks and play areas, the cemetery and crematorium, car parking, street cleaning, allotments and bin collections.

The chairmanships of each are expected to come from either Labour or the Conservative Party, with 11 or 12 councillors on both.

Elsewhere, sub-committees will be set up to oversee economic development, staffing and income generation.

The four existing regulatory committees - licensing and environmental health, planning, audit and governance will remain intact.

Under the system, the council will still have a leader, who will act as its public figure and sit on other bodies like the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

But the council says the deputy leader will come from "a different party", opening the door for a red-blue or blue-red partnership.

Labour Councillor Adrian Gregson, the current leader, said: "This wasn't something I was looking for, the driver for this has come from the other two parties (Greens and the Tories).

"But I am committed to making the new system work - we need to ensure that whatever we do internally, we are still very clear with partners and stakeholders about the direction of the council and our commitment to the five-year plan."

But he could yet find himself ousted as leader, with Tory group leader Councillor Marc Bayliss saying he may not be content with the deputy role come the spring.

"The objective, very clearly is to make sure power is more equally distributed according to the wishes of the people," he said.

"At the moment the smaller party (Labour, with 16 councillors) has total control of the city.

"I'm pleased the committee system will mean all parties get more of a say."

When asked if he intends to be deputy leader, he said: "Not necessarily - as the largest party, there is a moral case for someone from our group to be leader.

"It will be up to the full council to decide."

Cllr Stephen said he felt the new system was about "grown up politics".

"The new system will give Worcester Green Party a significant role," he said.

"It will be no surprise to your readers when I say there's been quite a lot of animosity between the Conservatives and Labour, for many years.

"Hopefully I will be a calming influence in bringing both sides together - in my role I'll be reliant on Adrian and Marc and hope we can all work together for the good of the city."

The powerful position of the Green Party comes despite it having just two city councillors among the 35 at the Guildhall.

But because they hold the balance of power they were able to help Labour form a cabinet as a minority administration last year, before deciding in November they were going to team up with the Conservatives to scrap the cabinet system altogether.

A vote will take place next Tuesday to endorse the new system, before seats are allocated to councillors in May at the Annual Council, including the leader and deputy positions.