STOURBRIDGE councillor Les Jones has landed his dream job as council leader after days of post-election drama.

At a meeting on Monday night (May 9), Pedmore and Stourbridge East Cllr Jones was appointed unopposed as leader of the authority’s ruling Conservative group.

The change was caused by a shock result after voters in local authority elections on Thursday May 5 dumped former leader Anne Millward out of her Gornal ward.

Mrs Millward was ousted following two recounts which ended when Labour’s Stuart Turner was declared the winner by 1,620 votes to 1,618.

Cllr Jones said: “I am very proud to have responsibility for the welfare of the 306,000 residents of Dudley borough.

“I never got into politics for self-satisfaction, the title is no-way as important as being able to make a difference.

“We have risen from a two-star council to a four-star council in eight years and I don’t intend to let that standard slip, I intend to go on improving frontline services.”

“I am never going to be satisfied and will always be striving to deliver better quality services for people.”

Cllr Jones has chosen Gornal Cllr Tim Wright as deputy leader and will reveal the rest of his new cabinet Thursday May 12.

He is expected to keep many existing cabinet members on the front bench although some may get new jobs in the reshuffle.

Cllr Jones, who was elected to the Dudley authority in 1999, paid tribute to Mrs Millward but he also predicted a different style of leadership.

He said: “She is a forthright woman who speaks her mind, I am a little bit more business like, a little more circumspect.”

The Labour group’s leader on Dudley Council, Cllr David Sparks OBE, says national politics and the Alternative Vote referendum played a part in Mrs Millward’s downfall.

Cllr Sparks said: “The change of leader which has been forced on the Tory group is a result of the Tory-led government cuts reinforcing the Tory council’s established policies of closing libraries, swimming pools, estate offices and other community facilities.”

“The referendum brought out a lot of Tory voters who would otherwise not have voted in council elections, this meant that many Conservatives just survived with smaller majorities.

“Anne Millward was a dyed-in-the-wool Tory however I always found that on a personal level she was very fair.”

Cllr Jones will be officially confirmed as the authority’s leader at a meeting of the full council on Thursday May 19.