The Leader of Coventry Conservatives, Councillor John Blundell, has announced his Shadow Cabinet for 2014-15.
The Conservative Group, which is the only Opposition party on the City Council, successfully defended a number of seats in the recent local elections which Labour had expected to win, with convincing wins for Cllr David Skinner, who was re-elected in Westwood Ward; Cllr Julia Lepoidevin, re-elected in Woodlands Ward; new Councillor Roger Bailey, who was elected to serve Cheylesmore Ward and another new Councillor in Jaswant Birdi, who won in Bablake Ward.
There were also wins in historically safe Conservative seats Earlsdon Ward and Wainbody Ward. Cllr Michael Hammon was re-elected in Earlsdon Ward, and he will serve as Deputy Lord Mayor for 2014-15, whilst sitting Lord Mayor Cllr Gary Crookes was re-elected to serve Wainbody Ward.
At a recent meeting of Conservative Councillors, the Conservative Leader, Cllr John Blundell, and Deputy Leader, Cllr Allan Andrews, were re-elected to their respective positions.
The Conservatives’ Shadow Cabinet is comprised of the following:
Leader of the Opposition and Conservative Spokesman for Education: Cllr John Blundell
Deputy Leader and Conservative Spokesman for Policing & Equalities: Cllr Allan Andrews
Strategic Finance and Resources – Cllr Tim Sawdon
Children’s Services – Cllr Julia Lepoidevin
Business, Enterprise and Employment – Cllr Jaswant Birdi
Public Services - Cllr Gary Crookes
Health and Adult Services – Cllr Ken Taylor
Culture, Leisure, Sports, Parks and Events – Cllr David Skinner
Community Development, Co-operatives and Social Enterprise – Cllr Roger Bailey (also Conservative Spokesman for Coventry’s City of Culture bid.)
Commenting on his team, Cllr Blundell said: “We have a strong, united team in place to hold the Council to account. As we have done over the past year, we will be a constructive and sensible opposition. Where we agree with Labour, we will say so and offer our support. Where we disagree, we will say so and offer an alternative."
Adding, Cllr Allan Andrews said: "We seek to work with the Council leadership in a mature way because we are all interested in making Coventry a better place to live, work, invest and play, and we are all keen to ensure that we protect services to help the most vulnerable people in our City.”