New Kirklees Labour leader Clr David Sheard predicts more tough times ahead for the borough.

But he wants cross-party and community action to get through it.

He has just been voted in as Clr Mehboob Khan’s successor and – vote pending – will become Kirklees Council leader by the end of the month.

Clr Sheard  is a part-time book-seller, a married father-of-two and member for Heckmondwike.

He said of his leadership role: “It wasn’t a direction I saw myself going in, it wasn’t an ambition I had.

“But the next two years are going to be really important for Kirklees, the council is going to be totally different to what people know and reform is needed.

“I’m looking for more collaborative working, other parties, the community, parish councils – and it’s not just me but every Labour member and councillor needs to do that.

“I want to be pulling all this together, but it will be a different sort of set up.

“I think it’s important that the council does have a national presence, but I consider my work to be here.”

A councillor of more than three decades, Clr Sheard says the budget in two years time will be more than £120m less than it was in 2010.

He added: “It’s easy being a politician when there’s plenty of money around, the difficulty is being one when times are tough, but if there’s ever a time it is now when it’s needed the most.”

He said he wanted the council to get better at explaining the processes behind some of the decisions made – such as cutting some services to protect others.

The councillor’s portfolio was Resources and its budget has less money for routine road repairs.

Clr Sheard explained: “The vast majority of money for road repairs comes from outside and we top it up, we always have topped it up and we will always have to.

“But the reality is there is less money. We have to balance the priorities, if you want your road repairing outside your house then what do you want us to neglect?”

And he spoke of tough choices in axing the glass collections and closing public toilets – both largely opposed among the public, and said more unpopular decisions were to come.

“We are going to have to look at the library service, can we afford it? Obviously we cannot as it currently is. And we’ve got to look at the museums services, we need a broad brush and examine every service to see what we want to achieve.”

He said that the Kirklees mobile library service costs £4.50 per visit, while the library home delivery service costs £2 per visit.

“If you look at the bigger picture you see they both do a similar service, the home delivery service is much cheaper yet it’s directed at vulnerable people so the added bonus is it means they have someone calling in to visit.

“People don’t have decent homes but we’re putting flowers in the parks. People can see flowers in the park, but they cannot see our social workers trying to keep a family together, prevent child abuse or stop domestic violence, but which is most important?”

CLR Sheard on Full Council meetings: “I’d like to have more Council meetings but shorter, from 6pm to 8pm. Councillors will always want a pressure point to blow off and I like a political ding-dong too, but the reality is we need to crack on and work through this.”

On having fewer councillors: “It’s a Boundary Commission decision, not ours. I’m not for naval gazing, the same goes with separating Kirklees into north and south, it’s not on the agenda so lets not waste time talking about it.”

On the Leeds City Region: “Kirklees has never had the illusion it is more important than Leeds which has helped us. But we have thousands of our population travelling into Leeds and Manchester every day so it’s important we work with other councils.”

On housing: “I’d love to be able to stop the Right to Buy, I have no objection to the government helping people with a deposit to buy a house, but help them buy a private house, not one of our houses. We’ve a long waiting list but there are empty houses on estates that people have bought under Right to Buy, that’s not right in anyone’s book.”

On the deputy and Cabinet structure: “I’m not rushing into a decision on a deputy, I want to give the members the chance to tell me what they will bring and then I’ll make a decision in May. It will be the best person for the job, not fitting a quota.”

He said Cabinet portfolios roles should be clearer to the public.

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