CONSERVATIVE GROUP ELECTIONS (12/06/02)

At their AGM on May 27th, Conservative councillors re-elected John Smeaton as their group leader. His position was not opposed.

There has since been a re-organisation of the group. This has included three changes to group spokesmen. The new positions are as follows: John Edney now holds the shadow portfolio for Community Regeneration and Economic Development. Denis Underhill is spokesman for Environment and Transport. Ken Maddock holds the Finance portfolio.

The re-shuffle also included Stephen Martin-Scott taking over as vice-chair of the Scrutiny Committee. This position had previously been held by, Liberal Democrat councillor, Sam Crabb.

Conservative leader, John Smeaton, commented, ‘I am delighted to be re-elected. As a group, we discussed the best way of organising the group and have come up with some exciting proposals.

‘Now we have the vice-chairmanship of the Scrutiny Committee, we can begin to unravel some of the cover-ups in County Hall.’