A COUNCIL’S new “rainbow coalition” leadership team has vowed to work together to take “difficult decisions” over the next four years.

Steve Lydon (Labour, The Stanleys), Martin Whiteside (Green, Brimscombe and Thrupp) and Ken Tucker (Liberal Democrat, Wotton-under-Edge), who each lead their parties on Stroud District Council’s cabinet, told the Gazette their objectives for their time in power.

The new council leader, Cllr Lydon, said the trio would work together to weather the storms of the “worst ravages of central government cuts”.

“The key thing is that the electorate has spoken, and that the Stroud way of doing things with three parties has been given a clear mandate,” said Cllr Lydon.

“One of the key challenges we’ll be facing is the lack of support from central government. Other people may call it austerity, I call it cuts.

“We’ll work with people across the district to protect against the worst ravages of these cuts and take on the issues of housing, environmental health and devolution. We will not duck from difficult decisions, and we intend to be as inclusive as possible as we make those hard calls.”

Cllr Lydon added his delight that the number of female councillors in the Labour group now equals the men.

Wotton-under-Edge representative Cllr Tucker said one of his main aims was to change the perception of his area as being “over the hill”.

Cllr Whiteside added: “We need to address things like affordable housing – where that can be introduced without building on green fields.”

Cllr Lydon said he had learned from his predecessor as council leader, Geoff Wheeler.

“He taught me that if you can get people to not only like you, but trust and respect you, that people could respect the decisions you have made and the fact you made them for the right reasons,” he said.