Walsall has its first ever Labour/Liberal Democrat Coalition as the deal thrashed out between the two left of centre Parties got a clear majority at the annual meeting of the council Wednesday night.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ian Shires heads up the Agenda for Change Portfolio on the council’s nine strong Labour/Lib Dem Cabinet. “It’s a prerequisite of any Coalition to have both Parties represented on the council’s main decision making body” said Cllr Ian Shires after the meeting. The Liberal Democrats are also represented on all four of the Scrutiny Panels. These posts are important as they hold the Cabinet to account.

The Liberal Democrats also secured the key post on the newly formed West Midlands Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Welcoming the new working arrangements between the Liberal Democrats and Labour Ian said

“Walsall is always controversial and this year has been no different. After a hard fought Local Election campaign the net result is what it’s been for the past three or four years or so.

Labour remain the largest Group but still fall short of enough seats in this chamber to form an administration. So once again the Council stands on a knife edge with barely a seat in it.

But this time there is a difference. The two left of centre Parties found it in them to bury the mistrust which had built up between them over the years as they fought each other on similar territory over similar issues.

So what happened eighteen months to two years ago to change things? We may never know the one thing which sparked off a change.

Whatever it was, over the past six months or more there has been a gradual realisation that we had more things in common than there were things we disagreed on.

In many ways our differences were in the way we approach things rather than the issues themselves. So as the cuts from Central Government went ever deeper following the end of the Coalition Government we moved further and further away from the Tories on the benches over to my right.

The cooperation whether deliberate or otherwise between Labour and ourselves on Scrutiny Working Groups, and at full Council on Notices of Motion on subjects that both Labour and ourselves had strong views on culminated in the two hour adjournment which led for the first time I can recall in a joint Lib Dem/Labour composite Budget to win the support needed to carry it through this Council Chamber.

Fast forward to today and we can see a growing confidence in our two centre left Parties, a confidence which has led to sufficient trust being built up for us to form a Coalition which would have been impossible a few short years ago.

Between us we need to show the people of this Borough that we can use the trust and cooperation we have in each other to break down the fear and cynicism to beat the negative, divisive politics which divides our communities.

This new administration has the time to show that by working together with our residents we can do more with less and show them that better is possible if only we can work together instead of pulling each other apart.”

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