Tendring Council leader to step down (From Essex County Standard)

Tendring Council leader to step down

1:40pm Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in News By James Dwan

TENDRING Council leader Neil Stock has announced he will step down from his position.

Mr Stock has been leader of the council since 2009, but will now step down to make way for a new leader.

He said: “There are so many achievements that I can be truly proud of during my time as leader.

“However there are none that I could claim sole credit for and it has always very much been a team effort.

“I’m at least in the rare position of being able to quit while I am ahead rather than doing a Blair and still hanging around when my sell by date has long since expired.

“I’ve stepped down on the back of unprecedented success.

“We have had to face up to the reality of massive cuts to our funding and have already brought about savings of £4.4m without affecting our frontline services to residents.

“This has been achieved while still trying to tackle the many social problems that we face in our district.

“It’s clear that more savage cuts are on the way and I think this is an appropriate time for me to hand over.”

He will initially stand down as leader of the Conservative group and then formally as council leader.

He will be proposing deputy leader Peter Halliday to take over as group leader.

Mr Stock added: “I am, if you like, going to “re-shuffle” myself out of office.

“I feel that we are now long overdue a refresh of the portfolios to ensure that they reflect both the priorities of the administration and the economic situation that we now face.

“I have deliberately put off such a decision whilst we undertook the challenging process of restructuring the staffing establishment.

“But before that process is even complete its clear that we are going to have to do it all over again, this time even harder in order to meet the latest Government imposed cutbacks.”

Mr Stock will remain as a ward councillor.