The leader of Warwickshire County Council has hit back at suggestions she is seeking to gain political advantage by delaying local elections. 

Cllr Izzi Seccombe rubber stamped the political decision to express interest in Warwickshire participating in the first wave of areas to bring all services under one new council. 

It would see the current county and five district and borough councils abolished to form a new unitary authority that would take charge from April 2027, resulting in the county council elections, scheduled for May 2025, being delayed by a year. 

That would leave the current Conservative administration in power for almost two more years with elections in May 2026 being for the new council that would then serve for around a year as a shadow authority while transition arrangements get sorted out. 

The Tories swept to a massive majority at Shire Hall in 2021 but the political balance in Warwickshire has changed significantly since.

The Green Party and Labour came together to take charge of Warwick District Council, Labour formed a minority administration at Rugby Borough Council last year, Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council went from blue to red and the Liberal Democrats won outright control of Stratford-on-Avon District Council. North Warwickshire Borough Council remains evenly split between the Conservatives and Labour.

Cllr Alan Boad is the leader of the opposition at Warwick District Council and asked Cllr Seccombe not to join a "lemming-like rush" to postpone elections like 12 other Tory-led councils.

He argued such decisions should not be taken "in the clear self interest of any political party" and that "you haven't managed to persuade the districts and boroughs" of plans for one big council since the county council pushed forward the idea in 2020.

In a nod to the national government's plan to head this way across England and Wales, he said: "Now, without consultation, you intend to grab the opportunity presented to you to get your way."

Cllr Seccombe responded directly. 

"At all times I have sought not to be political on this," she said. 

"Clearly, we are all political animals but this council was in existence long before I was part of it and a council will be in existence long after I am gone.

"It is always my intention to do the best I can, not necessarily the best for the party because this is about our staff and our residents. At a time like this, that, surely, should be a decision that exceeds party politics. 

"I know there is going to be an awful lot of muck thrown around and assumptions about me that suit a political argument but I hope that I will always rise above that and not engage. We owe it to our staff and taxpayers to be better people. 

"We have often complained about how the politics of Westminster is and I have always tried to behave in a manner that my mother would be proud of. I hope everyone else will do the same." 

Cllr Boad was among the vast majority to accept the inevitability of change but said time needed to be taken to think it through and discuss it with all stakeholders, including representatives from other geographic areas, suggesting "appropriate" powers could be devolved to town or parish council level.

There was also criticism of the pace at which Warwickshire is trying to move at but Cllr Seccombe said briefings from government strongly suggest a desire to get it done. 

"There have been a number of online meetings with ministers and civil servants from MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) which plenty of members of district and borough councils have attended alongside me," she said.

"They have made it very clear that the intention of the government is to unitarise the whole of the country over the next few years and it has been given a timeline of by 2028."

She said it was her vision to include towns and parishes in so far as they want to be involved while noting differences in capacity at some compared with others.

"There are opportunities in a new council that is shaped by all of you, around ensuring that the voice of residents has a place," she said.

"Those who say we are taking everything to Warwick and it is going to be too far away from the front line – it is not going to be in my vision but I am just one person and I want others to come forward and be part of it. 

"In that vision, I see us creating more community area committees, planning committees that are local. As a (county) council, we already create area delivery in social care and education, and our highway teams as well. 

"This is what you shape in the next few years and that is why there is a need to delay the election in my opinion. 

"In the minister's own words this week, there is an enormous amount of work to be done – arguably, I would suggest they be led by different councils to help shape what they might be."