THE council’s top team has been re-shuffled after councillor Julian McGhee-Sumner became the authority’s leader on Friday (December 14).

The new leader filled three vacancies in the executive and moved Councillors Anthony Pollock and Pauline Jorgensen to new roles.

Councillor Julian McGhee-Sumner said: “As the new Leader of the Council, I believe I have a strong Executive team to carry out our policies.

“The new Executive and Deputy Executive team has a mix of real talent, combining long-standing councillors and some newer ones.

“Going forwards, we are going to focus on delivering the best for our residents and our Borough.”

Councillor Parry Batth takes over the lead member for health & wellbeing, adult social care and housing, which is a new combined role formerly looked after by Cllrs Richard Dolinski and Cllr Pauline Jorgensen respectively.

Councillor John Halsall is set to take the mantle of Executive member for environment, leisure and libraries, replacing Cllr Norman Jorgensen.

Before the meeting, Cllr Norman Jorgensen was seen being told by the new leader: “I had to make some changes to show I was different from Charlotte (Haitham Taylor, former leader of the council).”

He added “you’ll be back” before Cllr Jorgensen returned to the back benches.

Deputy leader Pauline Jorgensen is set to take over as the executive member for highways and transport, replacing Cllr Pollock, who moves to executive member for finance, HR and corporate resources – a role which has been vacant since Julian McGhee-Sumner resigned from the position in September.

All other executive members keep their positions, including Cllr Philip Mirfin, who is overseeing the regeneration programme, Cllr Simon Weeks, who is in charge of planning and enforcement, Pauline Helliar-Symons, who looks after children’s services, and Stuart Munro, who is the executive member for business, economic development and strategic planning.

Cllr Julian McGhee-Sumner confirmed executive members will only be allowed to earn a maximum of £10,000 in allowances after a report from the Independent Remuneration Panel found councillors could take home up to £23,000 if they also sat on the board of the council owned companies.