TAMESIDE Council’s new leader has been backed by one of the borough’s MPs, who believes Cllr Eleanor Wills can bring a ‘generational shift.’
The Correspondent revealed the Dukinfield/Stalybridge representative has been appointed to the top job by the Labour Party’s campaign improvement board after being interviewed.
Now Jonathan Reynolds has backed the new woman at the top of the political leadership and feels she can bring a different way of working.
He also feels the time of using Conservative budget cuts during their time in power at Westminster as an excuse is over.
He said: “A born and bred Tameside resident, excellent local councillor and mum of three, Eleanor represents the best of the borough but also a generational shift in the leadership of the town hall.
“Alongside the forthcoming appointment of a new chief executive, there is now the opportunity for a real change of approach.
“Tameside Council needs to listen more. It needs to deliver projects faster, especially the regeneration programmes in the town centres. And it needs to communicate better with local residents.
“I know Eleanor will provide the leadership required and she has my full support in doing so.”
Under previous leader, Cllr Ged Cooney and even Cllr Brenda Warrington before him, critics believed Tameside Council did not make the most of what it has got, instead it focused on what it has not.
According to Mr Reynolds, however, that must stop – with the scathing report into the authority’s children’s services department a ‘line in the sand’ moment.
For him, it is now time to lead.
He added: “The last decade saw the Conservative government make dramatic reductions in council budgets in England, but that cannot be an excuse for everything.
“In areas like children’s services, we need officers and councillors to take responsibility for improving the current state of services.
“The report from the Independent Commissioner was absolutely right on this point. Eleanor showed real leadership in her response to this report.
“We also need more people coming forward who care about Tameside’s towns and want to play a part in local issues like town centre regeneration, social services, and the local environment.
“We’ve got a national Government more attuned to local needs than we’ve ever had before and we need to make the most of it.”
You are still not asking the questions residents need to know ? Ged Cooney was a labour councillor Tameside are labour controlled so don’t blame conservatives.
Under labour control inspectors have found weak and and proved bad management regarding the control of child care at Tameside council so tell us Jonathan Reynolds what passed proven experience this new leader as acquired and a proved history regarding the management of this department we need to know.Over the last 2 years council have shown they have failed residents by electing the wrong inexperienced leaders so please select this one with proved experiance!
So sad to see that any democracy finally died yesterday in Tameside .This now appears that 3 MP’s are positioning for absolute control of their chosen local councillors who can carry out their instructions to in excess of over 232,000 resident’s . Next week the deputy will possibly come from another MP’s ward and probably again be unelected by our elected Councillor’s , then the majority of the new cabinet I would suspect will be made up of possibly spouses, MPs agents and MP’s office support workers and potentially those directed to resign recently.
To get new people coming forward accountability ,honesty ,loyalty ,respect and transparency need to be values that all stakeholder share which feels sadly lacking in the recent chaos .It is unsurprising that Trust in politics is as low as 9% across the country and dropping.
Tameside Children services and its loyal hard working staff deserve much better .
I know my comments will be ignored this is the reason Droylsden council are failing in every department as in all areas of voted in officials ? Once you allocate a voting system the word power raises its head we have higher education and with this you learn logic and this brings in deep thinking and this helps you make choices without outside influences.
I am not saying because of this we make the correct decision but if you do not acquire this balance the chances are you will follow the pack mentality and the odds are ,the wrong decision has then been made MPs – Mayors and Prime Ministers and managers all lacking in this acquired gift will eventually fail.
So when Residents ask council management to vet a future manager from voted councillors and they don’t follow the basic logical thinking in appointing a high ranking appointment heads of power will follow there old process and get it wrong.
Question do we have any logical balanced high ranking officials on high ranking pay packets out there in Tameside council who can make a logical decision on the information before them on this very highly important position.
For the avoidance of doubt a Labour internal source has confirmed that Harry Enfield character Tim has not been involved in the recent Labour NEC appointments for a new Leader in Tameside and Mr Reynolds cannot be his twin because of a 19 year age difference.They cannot however confirm personal details but have suggested that he maybe a relation but suggest that it is more likely that he is his Doppelgänger in the attached picture
For younger readers possibly Google Harry Enfield Tim character.
This would be the same local MP fulsome in his backing of the Labour Council at the last, recent local elections?
Politicking Jonathan.
Don’t forget folks Reynolds is one that voted to cancel our heating allowance there all the same, they don’t care about us
I wonder if any tough decisions to fill the black hole will be considered to support the 22billion hole will be considered when she pays herself ,the new cabinet and advertises for the new Tameside CEO replacement which incidentally will be advertised higher than the Prime Minister.
All our 3MPs have stated publicly their regret but supported the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance for 10 million pensioners and maintained the 2 child cap allowance so this is their ideal chance along with the Labour head office overseeing this process to see if they are genuine to Labour values that we are indeed all in this together.
Reducing pay before appointment of new CEO ,Cabinet and new Leaders salary hike immediately would be honest so recipients can make informed judgements prior to accepting the new position being offered .
The average salary in Tameside is £32.8k which is regrettably the lowest in all of the 9 Greater Manchester council’s yet the Leader ,Deputy and majority of the Cabinet will paid well in excess of this .
Think it would be further great Journalism if when the The Correspondent Newspaper who have done a fantastic job on reporting this chaos when Ms Wills announces her selected replacements /appointments etc publish what salaries will be paid at so it fully explains to the hard working people of Tameside why their Council Tax might seem excessive
https://www.tameside.gov.uk/CouncillorsandDemocracy/DemocraticServices/Members-Allowance-Scheme#appendixc
“A born and bred Tameside resident, excellent local councillor and mum of three, Eleanor represents the best of the borough but also a generational shift in the leadership of the town hall.”
Don’t you need a bit more than this to qualify as suitable to be leader? What qualifications has she got?
It might be OK for Jonathan Reynolds to take the job of Business Secretary without ever having run a business or even had a job outside politics, but we should expect better in Tameside.
Perhaps the Correpondent will provide a full profile of this mysterious youngster. Who on earth is she? I think we should be told.