Adur council's new chairman and leader take up roles

Jeremy Gardner (Lab, St Mary’s) is now leader of the council, with Lee Cowen (Lab, Mash Barn) deputy leader.

Labour took control of the council after winning 13 of the 16 seats up for grabs in the May 2 local elections. It took the party from eight seats to 17 – and majority control of Adur for the first time.

Cllr Gardner takes over from long-term leader Neil Parkin (Con, Hillside), who led the council for nearly 24 years.

Adrienne Lowe was elected as the new chair of the council for 2024/25, taking over from former councillor Joe Pannel, who lost his Widewater seat in the local elections.

Cllr Lowe said she intended to try and remove ‘gendered language’ from the chamber, starting with her new position as chair – saying councillors should address her as just chair, not chairman.

She said there are many ‘unconcsious’ barriers put up for young girls, which gendered language such as chairman seeked to reinforce, saying she wanted to see these barriers ‘minimised as much as possible’.

Cllr Lowe said she had a masters degree in equality, diversity and inclusion in education, and was a teacher for 40 years.

The chair said the charities she would be fundrasing for during her term were the Lancing and Sompting Churches’ Food Bank and the Adur Special Needs Project.

Andrew Harvey (Lab, Eastbrook) was elected as deputy chair for 2024/25, taking over from Joss Loader (Ind, Marine).

Cllr Gardner also announced a new cabinet, with Cllr Cowen the new member for Adur Homes and customer services. The housing service was found to have breached the Decent Homes Standard by the national housing ombudsman last year.

Jude Harvey (Lab, Southwick Green) was given the environment and leisure portfolio, Saffa Jan (Lab, Peverel) resources, Sharon Sluman (Lab, Mash Barn) community wellbeing, and Becky Allinson (Lab, St Mary’s) regeneration and strategic planning.