Oxford City Council defends having two deputy leaders

Labour councillor Susan Brown said having two deputies gave "strength" to her team

A council has defended having two deputy leaders after fresh calls to justify the costs of the second role.

Oxford City Council appointed a second deputy to its Labour-run cabinet in 2017 to address gender balance issues.

In its recent reshuffle, Linda Smith was replaced as deputy leader by Tom Hayes while Ed Turner remains as the other deputy to leader Susan Brown.

Andrew Gant, Liberal Democrats leader, said the reasons for the role's existence had since been "dropped".

He said the additional allowance of taxpayers' money to a second deputy leader, which is £5,142 annually, was "absolutely outrageous".

"There is no provision for another post. They have made it up. It's not justified and it does not add anything," the opposition leader added.

Oxford City Council appointed a second deputy in 2017 to address gender balance issues

The second deputy leader post is a non-statutory role and would not be able to assume the powers of the leader in their absence, unlike the statutory deputy.

In response to questions from the BBC about the role no longer addressing gender balance issues, Labour leader Ms Brown said the "Labour Group elects our cabinet every year".

"There are no changes to the overall budget for councillors allowances," she said.

"From my perspective, having two deputies gives the strength of a broader leadership team who are also able to share deputising for meetings for each other."

A council spokesman said the issue of gender was "not something that is touched on in the constitution" and said ever since the leadership team had expanded "there has been at least one woman out of the three".

"Given the very ambitious workload of the council and the scale of its partnership activities, the leadership requires additional support," he said.

The council's entire cabinet is made up of five women and five men.