COUNCIL CABINET

As the dust settles from the political fallout of the local elections, the new leaders of Derby City Council have been installed. The cabinet - the people who will make many of the decisions that affect the city - has changed dramatically from total domination by Labour to an alliance of Liberal Democrats and Tories. One of the first moves of the new administration was to amend the constitution. It was agreed that the council cabinet should be made up of between three and 10 councillors.

Under Labour rule, the cabinet had to be made up of 10 councillors, including the leader and deputy leader. But now power could be concentrated in as few as three pairs of hands. Labour says this is dangerous as it could lead to only a few people having power (like when Labour were in control) but the new council leader, Lib Dem Maurice Burgess, says this move makes for a more flexible cabinet.

Both Lib Dems and Tories have four seats each in the new set up, so there is no overall power of one party, despite the fact that the results at the last election left the Lib Dems with 13 seats and the Tories with 12. This could lead to interesting - and long - debates in cabinet meetings and both groups have admitted the next year is not going to be "a bed of roses". Many of the parties' views oppose each other so it could be a year of political compromise on both sides.

It will be a steep learning curve for three of the eight - Les Allen, Paul West and Mike Carr - as they have served only one year as city councillors and they have now been elevated to positions of power. Other more experienced councillors have joined the cabinet - leader Maurice Burgess, deputy leader Philip Hickson, Roy Webb and Lucy Care - and it is probable it will be left to them to lead the way. In comparison to the Labour-run cabinet of last year, the alliance-run cabinet has much less political experience.

The heavyweight cabinet of the Labour administration boasted a total of 102 years of political experience between them. Admittedly, there were 10 of them compared with the eight cabinet members we currently have. But, even taking that into consideration, there is still a somewhat fresh-faced look about the Lib Dem/Tory alliance, with only a total of 39 years of political experience on the city council.