Sheffield City Council: Labour and Green coalition to run authority

Sheffield City Council went to no overall control following the May local elections

Labour and the Green Party are to run Sheffield Council in a "co-operative administration".

Talks between all the parties have been under way since Labour lost the city to no overall control in the local elections on 7 May.

The Lib Dems said they had declined to join the new coalition as they wanted to be a "strong opposition".

Labour's Terry Fox becomes the new council leader, with party colleague Julie Grocutt as deputy leader.

Mr Fox described the partnership as "a new way of working".

"We hoped to have a triangular arrangement with the Lib Dems, too. Unfortunately that has not happened, but we have an agreement with the Greens that will give us an administration and take the city forward," he said.

'Break with past'

Green Party leader Douglas Johnson said it was an "historic moment" for his party to have executive positions on the council.

"It's going to be really interesting. There's going to be an independent inquiry into the street trees and that's a symbol of how we can work together and is indicative of a break with the past.

"We will still have disagreements and we will have to find ways of resolving those. There's still a lot of work to be done to make this city better."

Lib Dem leader Shaffaq Mohammed said his party had turned down becoming part of the coalition as they could not make any agreement without knowing the other parties' key priorities.

"There was a danger of every councillor being part of the administration, so where were the challenges going to come from?" he asked.

"In order for a democracy to function properly, there needs to be a strong opposition."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Labour will have seven seats on the authority's new executive committee and the Greens will have three.

The committee replaces the cabinet after voters in a referendum backed a change from the existing system to a new committee structure.

Under a committee system, decision-making responsibilities are shared between more councillors rather than a single cabinet member.