‘Biggles’ faces turbulence from day one as leader of Sutton council – Inside Croydon

BELLE MONT, In Sutton’s response to Laura Kuenssberg (but with less scruples), sat through last night’s “mayor” ceremonies so she didn’t have to, and reports low-key issues for the new council leader and a big step back for Labor in council committees

Leaning out: Ruth Dombey makes final speech as leader of Sutton council last night

After a dozen years at the helm of Sutton’s Liberal Democrat council, Ruth Dombey last night handed the keys to her civic center office to her colleague Barry ‘Biggles’ Lewis.

In his final speech as leader to the ‘mayor’ meeting of the full council, Dombey confirmed what Inside Sutton she had reported in March, explaining that she had been diagnosed with cancer and was about to begin treatment.

After one of the longest recent terms for a local authority leader in England, Dombey has vowed to back her successor, Lewis, from the backbenches.

In his 12 years in charge – and especially since the 2018 local elections – Dombey has led the once-powerful LibDems through some difficult waters as their Sutton council majority was reduced to just three. She overcame internal challenges and healed countless fault lines within her team.

Dombey’s insistence on strong domestic discipline sustained his tenure, but with regime change, that discipline could come under strain.

Useless exercise: councilor Colin Stears is taking another year in suits

Even Dombey’s biggest critics admit that she was a competent and confident performer who deftly dodged many fateful bullets during her run.

She leaves a huge hole in her party and Lewis, as successor, could struggle to maintain standards, particularly with the open wound of the controversial selection of Sutton and Cheam parliamentary candidates appearing in the national press.

Almost in its first act, “Biggles” shed the services of David Bartolucci as deputy leader, replacing him with mild-mannered and caring Sam Martin as its number two.

Bartolucci was a notable absentee from last night’s meeting. He has also been sacked as chairman of the influential housing, economy and business committee and is losing more than £30,000 in annual allowances as a result of his demotion.

It was Bartolucci who oversaw the disastrous Beech Tree Place housing disaster, where he insisted on appointing a developer with no record, despite repeated warnings from the Conservative opposition.

After Lewis’ rapid rise to the leadership – he only joined the council in 2019 – he inherits several issues of concern to Sutton’s LibDems.

First is the de-selection of David Campanale as a potential parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam and the conduct of Councilor Luke Taylor, seen as the main driver against Campanale. Taylor wants the nomination as a PPC himself and is favorite to win the members’ vote, which is due to be declared later this week.

Turbulence ahead: Barry ‘Biggles’ Lewis, the new leader of Sutton council

An insider contacted Inside Sutton this week, claiming Taylor’s behavior at last week’s LibDem selection was “bizarre and controversial”.

Our LibDem mole is no fan of Taylor and claimed that in his speech to party members, the Sutton West and East Cheam ward councilor included a passing of his colleague Bobby Dean, PPC for Carshalton and Wallington.

Taylor is understood to have accused Dean of not doing enough to help the campaign in the recent St Helier West by-election, where the Conservatives wrested the seat by just six votes from the LibDems.

Taylor is said to have given him a name check Inside Croydoninsisting that party members should ignore everything written about him by us little toilers on this website as if we were ever anything but honest and informative.

Taylor is also said to have taken a massive beating at Sutton’s outsourced special education needs provider, Cognus.

Cognus, he said, had a “toxic culture”, which will hardly be news to hundreds of Sutton families with children with special educational needs and disabilities… although under Dombey there was always a strict omertà about such of issues among LibDem councillors.

With Campanale taking his case to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (presumably because his fundraising efforts for direct legal action failed miserably), there’s clearly a lot of mess Lewis will have to clean up. And if Taylor’s bid to become the party’s candidate for a winnable parliamentary seat is unsuccessful, Lewis will no doubt have to deal with a very deep and petulant scowl from one of his advisers.

At the low-key ceremonial council meeting, Colin Stears was voted in for a second term as ceremonial mayor, with Louise Phelan retained as his deputy.

But the announcement of appointments to various council committees underlined the deeply damaging impact on Labour, now reduced to just a pair of Sutton councillors.

Edged: Labor group leader Sheldon Vestey

Committee seats are allocated according to the proportion of council seats held by any party or group.

As a result of losing the St Helier West by-election to the Conservatives, the Labor group – ie Sheldon Vestey and Dave Tchil – were almost completely marginalized and saw their influence on council committees reduced from five seats to just two – one. on the strategy and resources committee, the other on the licensing committee, much less significantly.

Labor sources see it all as a self-inflicted setback, coming just two years into a term in which the party won seats on Sutton council for the first time in 20 years. Given how buoyant Labor is in the national polls, its overall drop in the vote in the St Helier West by-election should be a cause for considerable concern. As a result, they lost representation in the People’s Committee, the Committee on Housing, Economy and Business, and Audit and Governance.

All this can be traced back to the resignation of Labor councilor Sheila Berry following a falling out with her group leader Vestey.

Vestey denied there was any rift, but Inside Sutton learned that an internal Labor appeasement proposal to replace Vestey as group leader with Berry had been rejected. Berry felt that Vestey would simply continue to undermine her.

Former Labor members are also said to have actively campaigned against their old party in St Helier West, urging people to vote Lib Dem.

It was notable last night that Dombey singled out former councilor Berry in his farewell speech, wishing her well and hoping she would remain active in local issues. The eyes of every councilor in the hall looked towards Vestey at this moment. Vestey dragged his feet and looked straight ahead.

With Conservative group leader Tom Drummond set to become the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Sutton and Cheam whenever a general election is called, the coming months look set to be very challenging for the leaders of all political parties in Sutton.

Read more: Sutton Council sacks Cognus MD over their SEND disappointment
Read more: Dombey and co were forced down over gerrymandering
Read more: Sutton Simpson’s show cannot represent a £2m grant to SDEN

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