Wealden District Council has elected a new leader for the coming year.

On May 13, Green Party councillor Rachel Millward was voted as council leader, taking over from Liberal Democrat James Partridge, who has become deputy leader.

The switch was confirmed at the authority’s annual meeting, which also saw Cllr Gavin Blake-Coggins (Lib Dem) re-elected as the council’s chairman and Cllr Jessika Hulbert (Green) re-appointed as vice-chair.

The annual switch has been part of how the Alliance for Wealden, a cross-party coalition, has been running the council for the past few years. It will be each councillors’ second term in their respective roles.

Cllr Millward said: “I do, as ever, take the role on as part of a team and my heartfelt thanks to the brilliant, steady and deeply sensible James Partridge.”

Councillors also agreed the allocation of committee seats between council’s political groups.

A need to recalculate how the seats are divided arose as a result of changes in the political makeup of the council.

This included two formerly Conservative councillors — Neil Cleaver and David Greaves — leaving the Conservative/Independent Wealden Partners Group to form a new Reform UK Group. Independent councillor Daniel Brookbank MBE also left the Wealden Partners Group to join the Alliance for Wealden Group.