THE leadership of Malvern Hills District Council remains in place, though with a reduced majority as Liberal Democrat councillors voted against them.

Councillors voted in favour of chairman Dean Clarke, leader Sarah Rouse and deputy leader Tom Wells remaining in their posts for the next 12 months as the coronavirus crisis had impacted on their tenure.

Despite this, Lib Dem councillors voted against Cllr Wells, with their leader Cllr Kaleem Aksar saying it was time for a change.

He said: “By voting against the council leadership, we voted for tackling climate change; for making housing in Malvern more affordable; and, for improving hospital services in the area.

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“It’s not pie in the sky stuff. It’s what we were elected to do and we want to do it.”

“Residents across the Malvern Hills District don’t want the status quo. They want to see us to improve our communities after coronavirus.

“The current council leadership have declined to take this action so we felt like we couldn’t support them this year.”

There was some change however, with Cllr Beverley Nielsen taking over as deputy chair of the council.

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Cllr Rouse, re-elected leader of the council, said she hoped her colleagues on all sides could work together as the district recovers from the crisis.

She said: “It has been an incredibly difficult year and I have tried to engage with and work with everyone.

“I hope we can all work together to get the district out of this pandemic, none of the residents of malvern voted for us to not be engaged and working together.”