Council leader removed after losing confidence vote

A council leader has been removed after losing a confidence vote.

Councillors voted to remove Daniel Allen - leader of a minority Labour administration at North Herts Council - amid disagreements over his stance on local government reorganisation in Hertfordshire.

Val Bryant, a Labour councillor who was deputy leader in Allen's administration, automatically took over as acting leader.

A new leader is likely to be elected at an extraordinary meeting of the full council on 13 January.

At Thursday's meeting, 25 councillors voted to remove Allen, in charge since May 2024, while 19 voted against and one abstained.

The motion of no confidence had been brought by Ruth Brown, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, who said Allen had "ignored the will of the full council".

Hertfordshire has a county council, which looks after social care, roads and education, and 10 district and borough councils, which provide services including housing, planning and waste collection.

With a council shake-up looming, leaders of the 11 councils submitted a joint proposal to the government with options for two, three or four authorities.

At a full council meeting on 13 November, councillors backed the two-unitary model over the four-unitary option by 24 votes to 17.

However at a cabinet meeting on 20 November, members decided the four-unitary council model was its preferred option.

Allen claimed the authority endorsed the four-council idea after feedback from residents, but Brown felt a public consultation on the plans had a response rate of "less than 1% and the result of it was not at all conclusive".

The government will decide the option that will be implemented across Hertfordshire.

The leader of the Conservative group, Ralph Muncer, accused the Labour administration of showing a "blatant disregard for democracy" by backing the four-unitary model.

Brown has said a four-council model would cost more than £300m more - and place a border through the middle of North Hertfordshire, cutting off villages from their local towns.

Bryant told the Local Democracy Reporting Service "what we really want is for Daniel to be back in [the] position of being leader and working up to that", something Allen said he did not rule out.

But the Liberal Democrat and Conservative groups both separately said they would not find any administration led by Allen "acceptable".

The leaders said they would continue to work with officers to avoid disruption to the council's day-to-day running.

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