Slough council's new leader elected and cabinet announced

Slough council has settled on its new leader and cabinet – with Councillor Dexter Smith of the Conservatives at the helm.

The Tories and Lib Dems came to an agreement to work together for the administration earlier this week.

Now, Tory leader Cllr Smith is confirmed as the new leader of the council, replacing James Swindlehurst, the former Labour leader who lost his seat in the May elections.

No alternative nominations were made and no objections were raised to Cllr Smith’s nomination.

His party said the council needed ‘a steady pair of hands to lead us through these waters,’ and Cllr Smith had their confidence as ‘a strong man of conviction.’

Councillor Puja Bedi (Con, Colnbrook & Poyle) said:

“Cllr Smith is a gentleman through and through and will treat every one of us with respect. There will be difficult times ahead and there is no safer pair of hands to lead us through them.”

In addition, cabinet positions have been announced. They are:

• Cllr Dexter Smith (Con, Colnbrook & Poyle): Leader of the council, and improvement & recovery
• Cllr Wal Chahal (Con, Langley Marish): Deputy leader, lead for financial oversight, council assets, procurement, revenue and benefits
• Cllr Paul Kelly (Con, Haymill): Education, children’s services, lifelong skills and governance
• Cllr Anna Wright (Con, Haymill): Health, social care and wellbeing
• Cllr Iftakhar Ahmed (Con, Wexham Court): Leisure, community cohesion, regulation, enforcement and planning
• Cllr Puja Bedi (Con, Colnbrook & Poyle): Transport, housing, highways, the environment and environmental services
• Cllr Chandra Muvvala (Con, Langley Marish): Public protection, customer service, IT and young futures

Cllr Smith said: “I’m proposing a smaller cabinet than the previous administration – seven members instead of nine. I want a smaller, more value-for-money council.”

He said the decision would save about as much per year as the previous administration’s plan to turn down street lighting by 20 per cent – which he said was unpopular with residents.

The administration also wanted to nominate committee chairs and adjust the number of people on them ‘in accordance with the rules of proportionality’.

They met resistance from Labour on both counts – but the opposition’s attempts to change this ultimately failed.

As such, the committee chairs are as follows:

• Licencing committee chair: Cllr Ishrat Shah (Con, Cippenham Green)
• Planning committee chair: Cllr Iftakhar Ahmed (Con, Wexham Court)
• Employment committee chair: Cllr Rifaqat Zarait (Con, Chalvey)
• Corporate improvement scrutiny committee chair: Cllr Gurcharan Manku (Con, Langley St Mary's)
• Audit & corporate governance committee chair: Cllr Frank O’Kelly (Lib Dem, Cippenham Village)
• Standards committee chair: Cllr Zafar Satti (Con, Chalvey)