In an unexpected move, the current Leader of the Isle of Wight council, Ian Stephens, announced at 7:32pm this evening’s Full Council meeting that he was stepping down, as was revealed both in our live coverage and in our Twitter feed.
A series of nominations then followed.
Nominations
Cllr Lumley said he thought the vote should be deferred to next month’s meeting as there were several members absent. This was put to the vote and fell.
Cllr Steve Stubbings, as deputy leader, was offered the role, but declined saying, “Not at this time”.
As he declined, the Monitoring officer said there must be a vote tonight for a new Leader.
Cllr Stubbings nominated Cllr Bacon. Cllr Blezzard nominated Cllr Priest, but this didn’t receive a seconder, so could go no further. Cllr Jones Evans nominated Cllr Stubbings (despite him just having said he didn’t want to take the role), but this also received no seconder.
Cllr Jonathan Bacon elected
Cllr Bacon was asked if he’d like to accept nomination, he said yes.
A vote was held (Yes: 25; No: 3; Abstain: 3) electing Cllr Jonathan Bacon as the new Leader of the IW council.
The Chair of meeting thanked Cllr Stephens for his time as Leader of the council.
Other business was then discussed, until a little after 8pm Cllr Bacon, now the Leader, spoke saying that he will endeavour to earn respect of all members.
The new Leader speaks
He started by thanking Ian Stephens for his time as leader (just under two years). He lists out Cllr Stephen’s achievements adding, “We owe a great debt of gratitude”.
Cllr Bacon went on to say that he won’t be making any grand promises; that current (and probably the next) Government have shown a scant regard for local councils, which makes what the council can do very limited.
He went on to speak to the whole council chamber asking them to “avoid playground behaviour as is sometimes played out” there, adding that he looked forward to working with all in the chamber.
He concluded:
“I won’t always get it right and am sure it will be pointed out at any opportunity.
“I will keep the promise I made to Islanders on the doorsteps of Bembridge, Brading and St Helens.”
No indication
OnTheWight had a very long conversation with Ian Stephens on Friday last week and at no time did he give any indication that he would be relinquishing the positions of Leader of Isle of Wight council.
Blow-by-blow coverage
If you want to pick over the bones of what happened of what happened this evening, our Live coverage of the meeting is available.
