Q&A: New council leader and deputy answer wide range of questions

Here are the responses from the Labour politicians.

What is your vision as council leader?

Cllr Mundry:

People will be at the heart of everything I set out to do.

My number one priority is to do everything I can to support our residents with the cost of living crisis. We must continue to fight poverty and support all the hard-working families across our town.

Second, is caring for our children and ensuring those with special educational needs and disabilities get the help they need.

Third, protecting our most vulnerable residents and giving everyone in our town the opportunity to live happy and healthy lives.

And finally, I’ll work hard to improve our environment and greenspaces, tackling climate change and I’ll continue to upgrade our roads and boost our public transport to better connect our communities.

Warrington is a thriving town, I want to all our residents to benefit from this success, giving our residents the opportunities, they deserve.

Politics is about priorities and my priority is our residents.

What are your priorities as deputy leader?

Cllr Henshaw:

My life experiences as a nurse, solicitor and carer for my late partner, guide my priorities and public service. My overall mission is to ensure that no one is left behind and that everyone benefits from Warrington’s strong and innovative economy.

As a former nurse, I understand the importance of dignity, compassion and respect, and that’s why I will always look for ways in which we can improve people’s quality of life.

Through our new housing and health & wellbeing strategies, alongside our public health service plan, we will continue to provide accessible quality services that support all people to fulfil their potential.

Most importantly, I will work to ensure residents’ views and ideas inform every decision and action we take. Only by working together, can we maintain Warrington’s recognised position as one of the best places in the country to live, study, work and invest in.

Town Hall

Your views on the concerns and anger in the town as a result of the recent bin strikes?

Cllr Mundry:

I became leader during the bin strikes towards the end of last year and within the first week in the post, I got around the table with the unions to bring an end to the dispute.

I recognised the concern and disruption caused by the strike and took swift action to bring it to an end.

Cllr Henshaw:

As a new leadership team, we recognised the concern the strikes were causing and prioritised bringing them to an end. I’m glad all parties were able to get around the table and end the disruption amicably. As deputy leader, I will always endeavour to ensure people are heard, feel respected and valued in their place of work.

With council debt totalling £1.8 billion, are you hoping to bring this figure down?

Cllr Mundry:

It’s important to be honest and open about our investments. They provide the council with a surplus profit of around £23 million a year after all costs and interest has been deducted.

This directly supports the day-to-day services the council is responsible for, including things like adult social care and children in care. Without these investments we would have had faced further cuts to the services so many of our residents rely on.

I want to reassure our residents that we are continuously reviewing our investments, following the advice of experts and taking on board recommendations from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ensure public money continues to be well spent.

Our goal is to reduce the level of debt in a carefully considered and prudent way, some suggest we should sell all our assets but that would mean we would no longer have access to the profit generated from them which directly supports our residents and the services they rely on.

We have already taken our first step to reduce the size of the debt by selling one our investments for a significantly higher price than we paid for it.

Unfortunately, the disastrous Liz Truss Conservative budget, caused the economy to crash and interest rates to soar for the whole country. This is something we must consider when looking at our portfolio. We will not shortchange our residents.

Fortunately, most of our investments are secured on bricks and mortar with long-term loans secured at low interest rates at an average of just 2.5%, significantly lower than current interest rates.

Meaning, Warrington’s investment portfolio as whole is continuing to perform well, generating a net surplus of £23 million for the people of Warrington, despite the negligent actions of a Conservative Government.

Cllr Henshaw:

We have been encouraged by consecutive governments to use commercial ventures as a way to drive income, whilst they slashed public finances over 14 years of austerity.

Our strategic and prudent investments generate over £20 million in income, which assists us in maintaining vital services which people rely on, and that many other councils no longer have.

What are your views on social media criticism from residents?

Cllr Mundry:

It is important elected representatives are held to account in a democracy, however, too often this spills into harassment and abuse.

Councillors from all parties have been subject to horrific examples of threats, intimidation and bullying, with some serious matters such as threats about guns and stalking being escalated to the police.

I welcome residents engaging in local politics, but when this becomes a personal attack on the way somebody looks, or when it makes councillors feel they can’t be alone in public, that is concerning.

Cllr Henshaw:

Social media is an important communication tool for all councillors to promote the good work we are doing in our communities and across the town.

It has for some, however, become their main source of news and information, and I think we can all agree that the safeguards against misinformation are not yet strong enough, so it is vitally important we all fact-check everything we see or read online.

With the all-out elections taking place in May, how confident are you that Labour will retain control of the council?

Cllr Mundry:

We are not complacent – we never take any vote for granted. As ever we will be putting our case forward to the people of Warrington.

In Warrington, our residents have a choice between the Labour Party who puts people at the heart of everything we do, or the Conservative Party who have decimated public services, crashed the economy and neglected hardworking families.

Cllr Henshaw:

Only a Labour administration can best serve the interests of the entire town; I simply ask for people to judge us on our record and ambitious plans for the town, and consider what’s at risk when both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have neither.

How many seats do you believe Labour will win at the borough council election?

Cllr Mundry:

As I previously answered we do not take any vote for granted and we are not complacent.

Every week our councillors and campaigners are out across Warrington speaking to our residents, and listening what matters to them.

Our residents’ priorities are our priorities, everything we do is based in what our communities tell us is important.

I’m not a betting man and I can’t predict the future, but I hope Labour will be successful at the next election.

Cllr Henshaw:

We take no area for granted and will be working hard for every vote; we have a team of diverse and talented community champions across Warrington who are standing to serve their neighbours and get the best for our town.

What is your message to residents who are concerned that council tax in Warrington is set to increase by 4.98 per cent?

Cllr Mundry:

We haven’t taken this decision lightly, we understand everyone is feeling the pressures of the cost of living crisis, unfortunately the council isn’t immune to these pressures.

More than 70% of everything the council spends money on is for vulnerable adults and children, this covers things like adult social care and looking after children in care.

Unfortunately, the Government has cut our budget time and again since 2010, removing the support they provided for these services and pushing these costs onto local tax payers.

Warrington receives the second lowest amount of funding per household in the North West.

Our investment strategy brings in a profit of around £23 million every year but this still doesn’t offset the amount of cuts we have faced, which equals almost a quarter of a billion pounds.

If we didn’t increase council tax, we would have had to find additional savings from our budget and that puts us in an impossible situation, it would mean more cuts to our public services that we all rely on.

Cllr Henshaw:

This is not a decision that was taken lightly and the Government has made it clear that it expects us to apply the full social care precept of 2%.

As a carer to my late partner, I know well the incredible and necessary work our social care services provide and that the Government does them a disservice through insufficient funding.

To mitigate financial pressures, we have a generous local council tax support scheme for vulnerable residents and supportive advice services.

What are your favourite things to do outside of politics?

Cllr Mundry:

Outside of politics, I work with children in Lancashire giving them the opportunity to thrive and be the best they can be.

Away from work, I like to spend quality time with my family and enjoying days out locally. Family means a lot to me.

When I can, I also like to volunteer in Latchford, it’s the ward I represent, the ward I grew up in and the ward I live in. Community work is something I’ve done for a long time and seeing the difference it makes to people’s lives makes it all worthwhile.

Cllr Henshaw:

I work at Warrington Citizens Advice which keeps me grounded about the problems being faced by many people in Warrington and it’s always fulfilling when I can help people.

Outside of work, my partner and I have a little second-hand canal boat which we spend as much time on as we can.

What is your favourite memory since becoming a councillor?

Cllr Mundry:

Being elected as leader of the Labour group and leader of the council is by far one of the most meaningful memories since becoming a councillor and I was delighted that so many people put their trust in me.

I look forward to taking on new challenges and working with colleagues from across different parties to make Warrington the very best it can be.

Cllr Henshaw:

On cabinet, I am immensely pleased to see our carbon reduction targets being met year on year but often my favourite moments come from helping to initiate small community projects like the pop-up repair shop, run by Eddie in the Market; it helps people to get small electrical repairs for free and if they can, make a small donation to one of Eddie’s charities.

What are three things you would introduce immediately, if you could, to improve things for councils?

Cllr Mundry:

I think business rate retention is a must for Warrington, either retaining the entirety of what we collect or a significantly increased share. We currently keep around 30% of what’s collected, if we were able to keep the remaining 70% we could put that money directly into the public services our local residents rely on.

Secondly, more autonomy, powers and flexibility to address local infrastructure and service issues. In areas such as being able to build more affordable council housing and being able to build schools which we currently aren’t allowed to do.

Finally, currently municipal bus companies have to be run like a private business due to privatisation legislation from the 1980s. I believe public services should be run for the public good.

Cllr Henshaw:

Firstly, we need to end the one-year settlements from the Government that hinder us from properly forward planning, and instead forces councils to compete against each other like the ‘Hunger Games’ because of the uncertainty of funding.

Secondly, we need greater devolved powers; COVID showed how councils can better and more rapidly react to the needs of their local population when given the resources and responsibilities to do so.

Thirdly, we need more of the money generated here, staying here; the government keeps over 70% of our business rates. Imagine what we could achieve with millions more to invest in our connectivity, skills and employment, public services, and programmes to lift people out of poverty.