Councillor Sam Smith has been re-elected as the Conservatives Leader at Nottinghamshire County Council and new Leader of the Opposition at Nottinghamshire County Council today following Reform taking control of the authority following last week’s local elections..
Smith said the election had been ‘tough’ for Conservatives..
“I’m so very sorry to see many of my amazing colleagues across Nottinghamshire not get re-elected to the County Council. This is through no fault of their own, as they have been outstanding servants of their communities, but it is a result of national policies (immigration) playing a huge part in the outcome of a local election. Their hard work and dedication to their residents will be missed.
“We Nottinghamshire Conservatives entered the election with a proud track record of delivering on local priorities and getting things done. As the Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council,
“I was extremely proud to be going around the county reminding residents that as a Conservative-run Council we had; never closed a library; increased the highway repair budget to £70+m; protected local bus routes with £9m of investment; retained our youth services; deliver good care; improved SEND; invested an extra £60+m year on year into better local services; built new schools and expanded others; and delivered all that while never increasing Council Tax by the maximum, which saved residents £22m.
“It is because of this proud track record of getting things done and delivering on the local priorities of residents that myself and a total of 17 Conservative County Councillors were re-elected and elected onto Nottinghamshire County Council last week.
“This makes us the biggest Conservative opposition Group in the country (of those councils that had elections). I am the only Conservative Leader in the Midlands to retain their seat. On what has been a disappointing outcome to the election, these two points offer a little joy and optimism.
“We hand over a good Council to the incoming Reform administration and, whilst continuing to deliver on local matters, it is now the role of the opposition Group, that I now I lead at County Hall, to showcase to the electorate that national issues, such as immigration, can not be addressed at the County Council.
What an absolutely stupid comment!!
If you lot didn’t keep rolling out the red carpet for the boat people, then they wouldn’t come!! ♂️
It’s costing this country about £10 million EVERY SOLITARY DAY & it needs to stop!!!
It isn’t a stupid comment though is it. NCC can do absolutely NOTHING about immigration issues or ‘boats’. It is a national issue and no powers to do this locally. If you voted to think Reform wereb going to tackle immigration via Notts County Council, you’ve been misled
All they can really influce is issues like filling potholes, but Farage carries on as if he had been elected King of England. Btw Reform, could you sort the pothoes out on the turn from Arnold Lane into Shelford Road, they are worse than a poughed field. Let’s see some action after all the big words.
Heard this all before from Marcus Peregrine when he was making silly comments