Political deadlock has left senior officers at Milton Keynes Council facing the threat of possible High Court action, and making key executive decisions under the leadership of interim chief executive, Kate Page. Senior management has had to take over executive functions after opposition Tory and Labour councillors refused to back Liberal Democrat leader, Isobel McCall, as council leader, and blocked formation of the normal eight-strong cabinet. The May local elections left the Liberal Democrats as the largest party on the council with 21 seats, to the Conservatives 20, and Labour eight seats. Cllr McCall said: ‘This is unprecedented. Either they should allow us to get on with running the council or form their own administration.' The deadlock could continue until the next full council meeting on 10 June. Head of legal services, Phil McCourt, has warned the district auditor could ask the High Court to question the legality of removing executive powers from the cabinet. A spokeswoman for the Tory leader, Andrew Geary, said the leadership of Cllr McCall was ‘unacceptable', following two highly-critical reports of the Liberal Democrat management of the council's school-building programme, which had led to the resignation of former chief executive, John Best (see The MJ, 13 and 20 March). Kate Page took over as interim chief executive after the departure of Mr Best, and is now planning to hold weekly public meetings to ensure continued transparency of decision-making. She told The MJ: ‘This is a challenging time for everyone, but we are all pulling together to make sure we keep things running as smoothly as possible, and help to resolve the issues with our elected members as soon as we can.'
