THE city council has appointed joint leaders following a crunch vote.

Labour leader Lynn Denham and Green Party leader Marjory Bisset take up the joint roles on Worcester City Council after a change in the balance of the council following May 4’s local elections.

Cllr Denham had earlier proposed changing the constitution to hand the leadership of the city council back to the biggest political party but the move was rejected when it went to a vote.

Labour became the biggest party on the council earlier this month and went into Tuesday evening’s annual council meeting in the Guildhall with 12 councillors.

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The Greens, fresh from four big wins, moved to become the council’s second-biggest party with 10 councillors and the Conservatives lost seven seats and dropped into third. The Lib Dems doubled their tally to four on the night.

It looked to be running smoothly for Labour on Tuesday with group leader Lynn Denham appearing to believe that her proposed changes to the constitution, and the council’s leadership, would get the support it needed based on talks held between the political leaders ahead of the meeting.

However, the move hit a huge snag when the Greens proposed keeping joint leaders.

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Cllr Denham said she was “very disappointed and very surprised” by the turn.

The city’s Greens had moved to create joint leaders last year to reflect 2022’s tightly balanced election results with the council falling back into no overall majority, and called for the system to stay in place.

Labour and the Lib Dems had supported the city council leader coming from the biggest political party but the Conservatives and the Greens were not enthusiastic and voted against it.

When it was all put to a vote, Labour, the Greens and Lib Dems supported Cllr Denham’s appointment with the Conservatives abstaining.

Cllr Bisset’s appointment was only supported by her Green colleagues with Labour, Lib Dem and the Tories all abstaining.