Richard Siddall appointed leader of Maldon District Council

Richard Siddall resigned from the Tory party in 2020 after fellow Conservative councillor Adrian Fluker was heard to have made a homophobic remark at a Maldon District Council meeting.

The authority suspended Mr Fluker from some duties after an independent report found he had bullied and harassed Mr Siddall since February 2019.

Mr Siddall is now Maldon District Council’s new leader after being voted in by councillors.

The Independent Group member said he will focus on “working informally with other political groups” to pass business through the chamber.

He takes over the district council, which has no overall control, and admits he will have to employ compromise to run the council.

There are now nine Conservatives, six district support group members, six Lib Dems, six Maldon District Independent Group members and four non-aligned members.

He told a extraordinary session of the council on June 8: “We are not in a coalition, however we are working informally with other political groups to ensure we administer this council in the right way.”

He said the council's finances remain a priority in the face of budget deficits.

Mr Siddall said: “The future of this council is important. We are lucky in terms compared to other councils that we still do have £5million of reserves so we are in a good position.

"However, if we do not look at how we spend our money in the way we allocate our money then in a couple of years time we will be below our minimum reserves and we don’t want that to happen.

“What I feel we need is to ensure our strategy reflects our expenditure and reflects how we look at our services, and one of the things that I am interested to hear from is the Local Government Association finance peer review.

“We are waiting for that report to come and I think that report will really help us in terms of ensuring we set our strategy and connect that strategy to our finances.”