After getting past the excitement of the elections, the last week has been focussed on moving forward. Thursday night was the Annual Council meeting, that is the meeting that appoints both the Chairman of the Council and the Leader of the Council. Cllr Mike Garnett was Elected Chairman of Harlow Council for this year, and I was honoured to be relected Leader of the Council.Whilst I didn’t have to name my cabinet at that meeting, I felt it would be right to do so, to let people know as quickly as possible who was going to be responsible for what. I also named the Chairmen of the other committees, including the two new Select Committees, powerful back bench scrutiny committees that can hold the cabinet to account. There is also a Call-in committee that can call in (question the detail of) any descision taken by the cabinet; I offered the Chairmanship of this committee to the opposition.
Our Cabinet members & Chairmen for 2011 / 2012 are:
Resources Portfolio: Simon Carter
Environment Portfolio: Tony Hall
Governance Portfolio: Eddie Johnson (Also Deputy Leader)
Community and Citizenship Portfolio: Joel Charles
Regeneration and Enterprise Portfolio: Russell Perrin
Housing Portfolio: Clive Souter
Select Committee Housing/Finance/Governance: Linda Pailing
Select Committee Environment/Community/Regeneration: Mark Gough
Audit: Sue Livings
Licensing: Nick Churchill
Development Control: Shona Johnson
Call-In: Given to the Opposition to ensure transparency
This is a very strong team who are determined to deliver for the people of Harlow, and I am very much looking forward to working with them over the coming year to improve Harlow for all.