Working Together for the Future of Milton Keynes

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 24th May 2006

Members of all three political parties on Milton Keynes Council have agreed new ways of working in the best interests of the city. Councillors Isobel McCall (Liberal Democrat), Nigel Long (Labour) and Ruth Jury (Conservative) and their deputies met for a frank discussion following the adjournment of this year's Annual Council meeting.

Some of the major steps agreed were:

• Scrapping of the Business Management Group, to be replaced by regular informal meetings between the Council Leader and the leaders of the other political groups, or their deputies, to discuss important policy matters.

• An agreement to share chairs of committees.

• The External Scrutiny function be split into two roles - one dealing with health (chaired by a Liberal Democrat), and one dealing with growth (chaired by a Labour representative), to give each area more detailed attention.

On this basis the Liberal Democrat Group, while not holding the overall majority on the Council, will propose a Leader and Cabinet to the reconvened Annual Council meeting on June 6th. The current Cabinet will remain in place until then.

Cabinet Leader, Councillor Isobel McCall, said: "We have effectively been in a state of limbo since the Council went to no overall control following the local elections earlier this month, but this can't continue. Milton Keynes is in a period of massive change, and we need to work together to steer this as much as we can, and do the best for Milton Keynes."

Conservative Leader, Councillor Jury, added: "We agreed that realistically this is the only way forward, and while we always have political differences, we all want to do what's right for Milton Keynes."

Councillor Norman Miles, speaking on behalf of the Labour Group, added: "Our party differences have been widely reported in the local media - but hopefully to a certain extent we can bury our differences and work more closely together on the major decisions.