THE Conservatives plan to reach across the political divide to “restore civility in the Council Chamber” by returning to the precedent of handing key civic and scrutiny positions back to the opposition group.

The incoming Leader, Cllr Andrew Johnson, has offered the Labour group the Vice-Chair of the Council and the Chair of the Scrutiny Committee. Last year, the Labour group decided to end the long-standing precedent of inviting the main opposition to successfully nominate a member of their group to become Vice-Chair of the Council, but the Conservatives have made it clear that they are focused on delivering the people’s priorities and not squabbling in the Council Chamber.

Cllr Johnson said: “The Council I lead will work tirelessly to deliver the people’s priorities. That means ending the petty political point-scoring and restoring civility in the town hall with grown up politics.

“That’s why we are returning to the long-standing precedent of sharing the civic roles of Chair and Vice-Chair with the Labour party. In opposition, we said it was wrong for the then Labour administration to change this and we are sticking to our word.

“Furthermore, we have always been clear that a Council cannot scrutinise itself and we are therefore offering the Labour group the Scrutiny Committee Chair.

“We hope that the Labour group will accept our offers and work with us to bring civility back to local politics.”