It has been revealed that Stoke-on-Trent City Council has joined the Staffordshire Leaders Board.

This is shift in policy direction from the previous administration who opted not to join the board and move away from collaborating with the county council,

The leaders board is a collaboration between the both the county council and the nine district and borough councils in Staffordshire. The Board met for the first time in June 2022 with the county council leader Alan White becoming chairman of the committee, however there has been no meeting since March last year. 

Stoke-on-Trent never joined the board however provisions were made to admit the council at a later date with the same rights and obligations as other councils on the board.

Council Leader Jane Ashworth told members of the Strategy and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee about the change in policy after questioning from opposition leader Dan Jellyman over budgetary decisions.

The Board met for the first time in June 2022 however there has been no meeting since March 2023 (Nub News).

The council leader told councillors: "It is certainly the case that we have decided to change the policy and work more closely with the other boroughs and the county. So for instance I'm now the deputy chair of the leaders board across the county.

"Fundamentally, it doesn't make any sense at all not to work at all not to work with Newcastle and the Moorlands and the county, where appropriate, when something quite obviously, common sense tells you you have to be collaborating with them. So we are doing, if it makes sense we'll do it."

Explaining the reasons for the city council to move away from working with the county council the opposition leader said that the county council gained more than the city and the decision allowed Stoke-on-Trent to stand as a city in its own right.

Councillor Jellyman commented: "Council 12 months ago made a decision to move away from the county in the visitor economy and in terms of local economic partnership to stand us as a city in our own right. One of the principal reasons to move away was the fact that we were finding that as an authority that the county were very good at promoting themselves but not necessarily very good at promoting us and we were promoting them far too much and not promoting ourselves. 

"Could we end up with a situation where Staffordshire continues to get the cream and we don't. Which has been the case for far too long."

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