Shropshire Liberal Democrats elect new Leader

The Shropshire Liberal Democrats have today announced their Leader and Deputy Leader for the new term of Council.

This comes after the party won a majority on the 1^st of May, taking 42 of the 74 seats on the local authority and reducing the previous Conservative administration to just 7 seats.

Councillor Heather Kidd, a long-standing County Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen and previous Leader of South Shropshire District Council has been selected as Lib Dem Leader. This makes it all but certain that she will take office as Leader of Shropshire Council at the first meeting of the term on the 22^nd of May.

Councillor Kidd won the largest vote of any Councillor up for election in Britain last Thursday, taking 71% of the vote. She has previously received an MBE for services to rural communities and has a record of action fighting for residents across Shropshire on issues from NHS access to the state of rural roads.

Councillor Alex Wagner, a previous Parliamentary candidate for Shrewsbury who represents Quarry and Coton Hill, has been elected as the Lib Dem Deputy Leader – and will fill the role of Deputy Leader of Shropshire Council. Councillor Wagner has been a well-known local campaigner in the Shrewsbury area for several years, and was instrumental in setting up the campaigning machine of Helen Morgan MP after the North Shropshire by-election in 2021. He is the incoming Mayor of Shrewsbury.

The new administration have said to ‘watch this space’ ahead of Cabinet and Committee appointments and what they hope will be a bold, ambitious, and reforming agenda to deliver fundamental changes in the way Shropshire Council works alongside a ‘devolution agenda’ for the delivery of services.

Councillor Heather Kidd, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Shropshire Council, said:

“The Liberal Democrats are determined to deliver a bold, ambitious and reforming agenda for Shropshire. I’m honoured to have been elected as Leader and can’t wait to get started on delivering the change that people have voted for.

“Shropshire Council cannot go on as it has been. The organisation has to be more transparent, more efficient, and more positive about working with others – residents, businesses, town and parish councils and all sorts of voluntary organisations. We have to make people’s money work better.

“Change starts now.”