Hastings: New leader urges fractured council to find 'common ground'

Ms Hilton said: "I hope people feel they can trust me to find a way of working that everyone can live with"

The newly elected leader of a Sussex council said she is a "solution" that "everyone can live with" until local elections in May.

Green councillor Julia Hilton became leader of Hastings Borough Council on Wednesday and will form a cabinet with the Independent group.

Ms Hilton said she was someone people could trust and had put herself forward after months of political turmoil.

She said she hoped the council could "find common ground".

Hastings Borough Council had faced a "pretty chaotic time," the new leader said.

Six cabinet members resigned from the Labour Party in December as they faced a no confidence motion.

They have started an independent group which will now form a shared administration with the Green party, led by Ms Hilton.

'A power vacuum'

The Old Hastings representative explained to the BBC that she was "not obviously unanimously declared leader".

The council now has 11 independent councillors, 10 Conservatives, six from Labour and one from Reform UK.

She is one of only four Green councillors.

Labour and Conservatives abstained from the vote, Ms Hilton said, but they had "been involved in the negotiations to enable me to become leader because there was a power vacuum".

The new leader was nominated by councillor Tony Collins and seconded by Nigel Sinden, carrying the vote with 11 in favour, two against and 14 abstentions.

Ms Hilton will remain leader until the next annual council meeting and local elections in May.

Councillors had to find "common ground" and "develop ways of working together", Ms Hilton insisted.

"I think people are fed up with tribal politics - they really want our politicians to work together," she said.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].