BELLE MONT, Inside Sutton’s answer to Laura Kuenssberg (but with fewer scruples), sat through last night’s ‘mayor-making’ ceremonials so that you didn’t have to, and reports simmering problems for the new council leader and a huge step backwards for Labour on council committees
Bowing out: Ruth Dombey makes her final speech as Sutton council leader last night
After a dozen years leading Sutton’s Liberal Democrat council administration, Ruth Dombey last night handed the keys to her civic centre office to her colleague, Barry “Biggles” Lewis.
In her final speech as leader at the “mayor-making” meeting of full council, Dombey confirmed what Inside Sutton had reported in March, explaining that she had been diagnosed with cancer and was about to begin treatment.
After one of the longest recent tenures for a leader of a local authority in England, Dombey vowed to support her successor Lewis from the backbenches.
In her 12 years in charge – and especially since the 2018 local elections – Dombey has steered the once mighty LibDems through some tricky waters as their council majority in Sutton has been whittled down to just three. She has seen off internal challenges and has healed innumerable fault lines within her team.
Dombey’s insistence on strong internal discipline has underpinned her tenure, but with a change in regime, that discipline could come under a heavy strain.
Pointless exercise: councillor Colin Stears gets another year in fancy dress
Even Dombey’s biggest critics acknowledge that she has been a competent and sure-footed performer who has skilfully dodged many fateful bullets during her leadership.
She leaves a huge hole in her party, and Lewis, as successor, could struggle to keep up the standards, especially with the open wound of the controversial Sutton and Cheam parliamentary candidate selection featuring in the national press.
In almost his first act, “Biggles” has dispensed with the services of David Bartolucci as deputy leader, replacing him with mild-mannered and thoughtful Sam Martin as his No2.
Bartolucci was a notable absentee from last night’s meeting. He has also been removed as chair of the influential housing, economy and business committee, and loses more than £30,000 in annual allowances as a consequence of his demotions.
It was Bartolucci who oversaw the disastrous Beech Tree Place housing debacle, where he insisted on appointing a developer with no track record, despite repeated warnings from the Tory opposition.
Following Lewis’s rapid rise to the leadership – he only joined the council in 2019 – he inherits several troubling issues for Sutton’s LibDems.
First up is the deselection of David Campanale as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam, and the conduct of Councillor Luke Taylor, seen as the prime mover against Campanale. Taylor wants the nomination as PPC himself and is favourite to win the members’ vote, which is to be declared later this week.
Turbulence ahead: Barry ‘Biggles’ Lewis, the new council leader in Sutton
An insider contacted Inside Sutton this week claiming that Taylor’s behaviour at last week’s LibDem selection hustings was “bizarre and controversial”.
Our LibDem mole is no fan of Taylor, and claimed that in his speech to party members, the Sutton West and East Cheam ward councillor included a sideswipe at his colleague Bobby Dean, the PPC for Carshalton and Wallington.
Taylor supposedly accused Dean of not doing enough to help the campaign in the recent St Helier West by-election, where the Tories snatched the seat by just six votes from the LibDems.
Taylor is then reported to have given a name check to Inside Croydon, insisting that party members should ignore anything written about him by us lowly plebs toiling away on this website, as if we’d ever be anything other than honest and informative.
Taylor is also said to have taken a massive sideswipe at Sutton’s shambolic outsourced special educational needs provider, Cognus.
Cognus, he reportedly said, had a “toxic culture”, which will hardly be news to hundreds of Sutton families with children with special educational needs and disabilities… though under Dombey there has always been a strict omerta on such matters among LibDem councillors.
With Campanale taking his case to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (probably because his fundraising efforts for direct legal action failed badly), there is clearly plenty of mess that Lewis will have to clean up. And if Taylor’s bid to become the party’s candidate for a winnable parliamentary seat is unsuccessful, Lewis will no doubt have to deal with a very deep, petulant sulk by one of his councillors.
At the low-key ceremonial council meeting, Colin Stears was voted in for a second term as ceremonial mayor, with Louise Phelan retained as his deputy.
But it was the announcement of the appointments to various council committees that underscored the deeply damaging impact for Labour, now reduced to just a pair of Sutton councillors.
Marginalised: Labour group leader Sheldon Vestey
Committee places are allocated according to the proportion of council seats any party or group holds.
As a result of the loss of St Helier West by-election to the Tories, the Labour group – meaning Sheldon Vestey and Dave Tchil – have been almost completely marginalised, and seen their influence on council committees reduced from five seats to just two – one on strategy and resources committee, the other on the much less-significant licensing committee.
Labour sources regard this all as very much a self-inflicted reverse, coming just two years into a term which had seen the party win council seats in Sutton for the first time in 20 years. Given how buoyant Labour is in national polling, their complete slump in votes at the St Helier West by-election should be a cause of considerable concern. As a result, they have lost representation on the people committee, the housing, economy and business committee and audit and governance.
This can all be traced back to Labour councillor Sheila Berry’s resignation, following a falling out with her group leader, Vestey.
Vestey has denied there was any rift, but Inside Sutton has learned that an internal Labour peacemaking proposal, to replace Vestey as group leader with Berry was turned down. Berry felt Vestey would simply continue to undermine her.
It was noticeable last night that Dombey singled out former councillor Berry in her parting speech, wishing her well and hoping she remained active in local issues. The eyes of every single councillor in the room looked towards Vestey at this moment. Vestey shuffled his feet and stared straight ahead.
With Tory group leader Tom Drummond gearing himself up to be the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Sutton and Cheam whenever the General Election is called, the coming months look to be very challenging for the leaders of all Sutton’s political parties.
Read more: Sutton Council sacks Cognus MD over their SEND shambles
Read more: Dombey and chums forced to climbdown over gerrymandering
Read more: Sutton’s Simpson show can’t account for £2m SDEN subsidy
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
