THE new leader elect of Waverley Borough Council has vowed that the Lib Dem group will "renew its efforts to bring about a senior management restructure at Waverley". And the group wants to push a further £100,000 from back office costs to frontline services. The pledge came after the group chose Farnham Castle borough councillor Gillian Ferguson as its new leader at the weekend, following the shock resignation last week of Chris Slyfield. Her selection is likely to be ratified at a meeting of the full council next week. Miss Ferguson's deputy will be Cranleigh councillor and past mayor of Waverley Celia Savage. Miss Ferguson, a former civil servant who took early retirement from the Ministry of Defence last May after 30 years' service, was elected in the May 2003 local elections, taking on the executive portfolio for parishes, partnerships and the local economy. Given the job as acting leader when Mr Slyfield resigned last week, Miss Ferguson will swap her portfolio for corporate and community strategy, which includes partnership arrangements and the all-important budget, which is set to be agreed at the full council meeting. Speaking this week to The Herald, Miss Ferguson said: "Taking on the budget is quite something, it comes at a pretty critical time and is a major political issue. "I have been working closely with Chris Slyfield since his resignation and he has given me a marvellous introduction to the job." With savings of £294,000 already identified within the Lib Dems' cost-cutting budget proposals for the coming year, Miss Ferguson spoke of the recent decision by Waverley to go for a transfer of its housing stock to a newly created housing association, provided tenants agree in a forthcoming ballot. "We want to look at the top management structure of Waverley in association with changes one way or another within the housing department. "We will be trying to avoid compulsory redundancies, but looking at a big change like that, we have to get the top management right." Other savings already earmarked are a possible reduction in opening hours of Waverley's locality offices in Farnham, Haslemere and Cranleigh and cuts in other departments which could impinge on arts and sporting events in the borough. Reductions in a number of posts, including land charges, replacing a planning policy officer with a trainee, retirements and part-time working are all on the executive proposal for staff budget reductions. Savings on administrative costs, said Miss Ferguson, will be put into frontline services such as increasing grants for partnership funding for local organisations where grant funding is matched by grants from other sources. It also involves investing in environmental contracts including waste collection, particularly plastic recycling which have been called for by local residents. The cuts, she said, had already been identified both by the chief executive's office and the Lib Dems. She believed it was a "cross-party" aim of all borough councillors. "We need to start planning pretty soon, with the housing ballot later this year." Expanding various partnerships, including working with the South East of England Regional Assembly, SEERA. parishes, the police and Surrey County Council and other authorities, would also be on the agenda, and Miss Ferguson declared that she "would be making the most" of what she saw as "a definite way forward". Mr Slyfield has agreed to continue as chairman of the Lib Dem group, which he had previously combined with leader. Miss Ferguson was unanimously chosen, following a meeting of the local group last Sunday, just days after Mr Slyfield quit the job. He had blamed what he described as a "climate of relentless fear and secrecy" within the council and other events since he became leader after the May, 2003 elections Also frustrated by what he saw as "obstacles put in the way", Mr Slyfield vowed to continue to "stamp down on secrecy" and "corporate barriers" placed in the way of councillors getting on with their job. "This will enable me to be free to fight from the backbenches for a more open Waverley - a key aim that as leader I have been hampered from doing," he said in a letter to The Herald this week. The meeting of the full council takes place on Tuesday, February 22, at 7 pm at Waverley's HQ in Godalming.
