South Derbyshire District Council has retained its Labour leadership due to key support from former Conservatives – keeping their old party from getting back in charge.

The council has now been under Labour control for around 18 months and has now survived another approach on its leadership at a tight vote last week.

At the last election in 2019, the Conservatives had a reasonable hold on the council, with 22 seats to Labour's 14.

However, a slew of resignations from the Conservative Group, both from the council overall and to start a new Independent Group of former Tories, and others to sit as independents, saw the authority pass into Labour control last January.

In the past couple of weeks much has changed, with a number of the former Tories who left to form the Independent Group being welcomed back into the Conservative Group (Martin Fitzpatrick and Michael Dawson) and one resigning (David Angliss).

This means the balance of power now falls in favour of the Conservatives, in theory, but no one party holds an outright majority and there is no formal coalition of parties.

The current position is: Conservatives, 16 seats; Labour, 15 seats; Independent Group, two seats; two independents; and one vacancy left by David Angliss in the Midway ward – for which there will now be a by-election.

At a full council meeting on Thursday, May 12, with the Conservatives now having more councillors than any of the other parties, a series of votes were held on who should be the leader and deputy leader of the authority.

Key votes from former Conservatives, Independent Cllr Amy Wheelton and Independent Group Cllr Andy MacPherson, helped to defeat aims to appoint Conservatives Peter Smith and Daniel Corbin as leader and deputy leader.

Instead, Cllr Kevin Richards and Cllr Trevor Southerd, both Labour councillors, were appointed.

This comes four months after an unsuccessful attempt led by Cllr Fitzpatrick, then leader of the Independent Group and now former councillor David Angliss to dethrone Cllrs Richards and Southerd.

The attempt was dubbed "deceitful, duplicitous and sleazy".

With Labour retaining the leadership roles, Cllr Richards was able to decide who would lead each of the council's committees, including those for planning and finance, with Labour councillors appointed to head each.

However, due to the tight balance of power on the council, independent councillors will now effectively hold potentially casting votes on planning and environment and development decisions – with six councillors each for Labour and the Conservatives and one independent.

Councillors sometimes break party lines when it comes to planning decisions, which are often highly subjective.

There will be a full council election in South Derbyshire next May when all 36 seats will be contested.