Tories Lose Majority on County Council
PAUL McLAUGHLIN
The Conservatives have lost their majority on East Sussex County Council (ESCC) after being pushed into second place in a by-election last Thursday (3 August). The election, in what has long been considered a safe seat in the Eastbourne Meads ward, was triggered by the death of Cllr Barry Taylor who had represented the ward since 2005.
The Liberal Democrat, Brett Wright, triumphed at the poll with 1,649 votes, comfortably beating the Conservative candidate Nicholas Taylor with a majority of 288. He will now serve as the new councillor.
This latest Tory defeat comes just weeks after Anne Cross of the Green Party won a by-election in Heathfield and Mayfield following the death of another long-serving Conservative councillor, Rupert Simmons.
These two results mean that no single party now has overall control of ESCC. The Conservatives still hold 25 out of 50 seats whilst the Liberal Democrats have 12, the Green Party and Labour have 5 apiece and there are 3 independents. The Conservatives will continue to run the Council, however, by reliance upon the casting vote of its Chairman, Peter Pragnell, who represents the Ashdown and Conquest ward of ESCC as well as sitting as Hastings Borough councillor for St Helens.
REDUNDANCY COSTS
If the by-election result made for uncomfortable reading for the Conservatives, they may be further embarrassed by figures released this week by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) which reveal that ESCC paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds in staff redundancy settlements last year.
The figures show that in the year to March 2023 the Council spent £552,000 to make 48 staff members redundant. This compares with 52 redundancies made by the Council in the year before, costing hard-pressed local taxpayers £997,000.
The Local Government Association said that the figures clearly demonstrated the severe budgetary pressure councils were being placed under to balance their budgets. It suggested it was often easier for them to cut senior staffing levels, even with generous exit packages, than to make cuts to front line public services. It is also recognition that, after years of having to find savings on services, such as bus route subsidies, streetlights, recycling centres, and community health services, there is now little or no fat left to cut.
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