Tewkesbury Borough Council’s new Liberal Democrat chief says he decided to get involved after witnessing the injustices austerity has brought on society.
Councillor Richard Stanley, 41, says he never expected he would become leader when he was first elected.
He decided to get involved and make a difference and was elected to represent the Cleeve West ward on the borough council in 2019.
After four years in opposition and working for his community, he now leads the minority Lib Dem administration in Tewkesbury after their victory in the May elections.
He believes in collaborative working with all other parties and that tribal differences should be put to one side for the benefit of borough residents.
“I wasn’t very political in my twenties. It only really started to click for me when we had children, as we foster.
“And so I started to see the impact of austerity on the county council at the time and the impact that was having on children in care and all other children. That sparked my oh, OK, how do we change this?
“That was the start of the journey and you can’t not have noticed the injustices over the last however many years. The more unfairness I’ve seen, the more it has spurred me to do more.
“I went to a council meeting and a Lib Dem asked me if I’d like to join the party. I thought probably not but I went home and had a think about it.
“If people don’t start getting involved and doing things, how can we complain?”
“Some people think politics isn’t for the likes of them and it’s for someone else. Maybe there’s a stereotype of what we think a politician is, from a certain age and background.
“Having a variety of backgrounds in politics and people from all walks of life being councillors is really important.”
Cllr Stanley says the last four years as a ward councillor involved a lot of ward work and he loved the opportunity to serve the residents.
He believes his party’s success in the borough is down to the hard work and commitment put in by his fellow councillors.
“A lot of Lib Dems believe in localism, community and it’s not a coincidence that a lot of my colleagues do a lot of ward work,” he said.
“That was a big part of us winning the elections. A lot of residents were not necessarily voting for the Lib Dems but for Richard, Mary or whoever is in their ward that does a lot of the work.
“There’s definitely a national picture as well but we outperformed in Tewkesbury compared to that national swing.”
He says being borough council leader has been really rewarding and is enjoying the role but readily admits the council faces major challenges, around planning, housing shortage, climate change, the cost of living and the Tewkesbury Garden Town.
“There’s a heck of a lot to do and we have done quite a bit in a short period of time. Some of the challenges are quite big things which won’t be changed quickly but we are starting to make positive steps on that.”
Getting to grips with planning, getting the policies in place will be one of his administration’s top priorities and not being able to argue a five year housing land supply is a major concern in the borough, he says.
“We know residents feel very frustrated at the scale of development and lack of infrastructure, parks and facilities that come with it. The council also has a very difficult budget situation.
“We are a particularly poorly-funded council. Suffered with austerity and cuts to local government but we are also rapidly growing which is actually exacerbating the financial position of the council.”
“I’m up for working with the other groups. All councillors, whatever their party, first and foremost represent their communities.”
“Residents don’t want this tit-for-tat between political parties; they want people to work together.”
The political make up of Tewkesbury Borough Council is 16 Liberal Democrats, nine Conservatives, four Greens, seven Independents and two Isbourne and Winchcombe Independents.
By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter