Colchester Council coalition to be decided as negotiations begin

The council elections saw the Conservative party remain the largest single party in the town hall, with 19 councillors returning for the next year following elections last week.

But with Labour and the Liberal Democrats each taking 15 councillors and expected to continue power sharing, the question now is whether the Greens – who have two councillors in the form of Richard Kirkby-Taylor and Mark Goacher – will continue to hold a key role in decision making.

Colchester Labour’s annual general meeting on Friday also saw Julie Young, a former mayor of Colchester from 2016 to 2017, elected party leader thereby replacing the outgoing Adam Fox.

But Ms Young, 63, was non-committal on whether the Greens would be brought in as part of the power share and said negotiations will be taking place over the course of this week.

She said: “We will have to see – we have started negotiations and we have had friendly talks so far.

“We’ve got meetings in the diary for the next week; all I can say is that we’ve started a conversation and it’s been fruitful.”

When asked on which Labour policies converge with those of the Green party, she said: “Looking at [the Green party’s] manifesto, there are some good ideas.

"For example, we would like to see some focus on the creating of a post of mental health champion – something like that which was in the Green manifesto is something I would like to see us do, because why not use people’s good ideas?”

Colchester Council leader David King, who is now entering his second year at the helm, said the current discussions are on course to be completed before the mayor-making service, which is due to take place on Wednesday, May 24.

He said: “Amicable discussions have started.

“It will take the coming days for us to work through - what we must do is go through what we do each time there is an administration to confirm.

“I’m hopeful for continuity.

“We will be ready, I believe, in good time for May 24 mayor making.”