Wirral’s council leader said her two years in the role has been “unprecedented” as the local authority dealt with Covid and the cost of living crisis.
Cllr Janette Williamson said: “It’s not been easy because we had Covid and when we came out of that, we had the cost of living and then the disastrous mini-budget as well as the consistent underfunding of councils.”
Cllr Williamson first became leader in September 2020 and most recently was re-elected after the May 2022 elections with a unanimous vote by all councillors. She has been a councillor for Liscard since 2012.
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Looking back, she said: “I don’t think I knew what to expect. It’s been difficult as most people go into politics because they want to make a difference. With so many national things going on such as the pandemic that I couldn’t affect, it’s been really difficult. It’s difficult to see people struggle. All I can do as a leader of the council is to ensure we do the best we can in terms of support.
“It’s been in a hung council too, it’s a different dimension as you haven't got a mandate to push ahead with what you want to do personally. It’s always contingent on getting other parties to sign up to it.
“The individual parties have different and opposing principles. It could be more democratic in that respect as everyone’s got a seat around the table but the flipside of that is that things get diluted.”
Since becoming leader, Cllr Williams said she is most proud of the council’s draft Local Plan calling it “a long time in the making” as well as regeneration schemes in Birkenhead and eastern Wirral “really taking shape.”
She said she wouldn’t have done anything differently: “I haven’t been the leader for a decade. Everything has been unprecedented and I’ve had to approach things as this is the first time that has happened to the borough.”
Over the past year with the council reporting a large budget gap in October, Cllr Williamson has been criticised, particularly by the Conservatives for what they argue is poor handling by Labour of council finances. The Conservatives also argued Cllr Williamson was failing to address local issues.
She said: “It’s laughable to say that I’ve done nothing on a local level. In fact I’m a very community focused leader on the council and I think my record speaks for itself in terms of community work.”
Past schemes such as the proposed Hoylake golf resort, community bank and Vue cinema were brought up several times. Cllr Williamson defended the cinema saying it brought money into Birkenhead.
On the golf resort, she argued it “got all-party support at the time and the council thought it was a good opportunity to bring money in and develop it.”
She added: “The Conservatives changed their minds and we changed ours when I made the decision not to extend the loan. I never wrote the cheque for £26m. What they’re trying to do is find a bunch of figures that add up to the budget gap as a result of their government.
“The problem with the golf resort was that the company wanted to sue us for breach of contract and the half a million, that was kind of a settlement. In all honesty most of the councillors in the chamber knew that’s what we had to do but they just didn’t want to put their hands up publicly. We all had lengthy discussions behind the scenes.”
As leader, Cllr Williamson said she accepts getting criticism but has “never resorted to personal attacks” herself, calling some comments from councillors “beyond vile.”
She added: “I’ve never brought myself down to that level. I save the criticism for the party and their policies instead of standing up at full council and attacking someone personally”
Recently, Cllr Williamson spoke at an event about how someone asked her how her mental health was. While she’s said she’s dealt with online abuse and in-person intimidation, she added: “It’s difficult because when it’s online, my family can see that. My mum and my daughter can see that and that’s more upsetting for me than the content of them.
“I was taken aback because no one’s really asked me except family members how my mental health is. I think that every elected councillor at some point in time has probably found things difficult.
Looking ahead to next year with the council considering millions in savings to close its currently £38m budget gap, Cllr Williamson said: “We spend all our time firefighting and I won’t let that happen on Wirral.
"We’ve just got to get our finances in order like every other council and start to have a vision going forward. We can’t be defined by the cuts.”
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