The Leader of Rotherham Council, Cllr Chris Read, has announced plans for his new-look Cabinet - with three new figures joining the senior political leadership of the authority.
Cllr Victoria Cusworth, who was previously the Chair of the Improving Lives Scrutiny Committee that oversees Children’s Services, has been appointed to lead on Children and Young People’s Services. Cllr David Sheppard is taking up the new portfolio of Social Inclusion and Cllr Amy Brookes will be responsible for Housing.
Cllr Sarah Allen will take responsibility for supporting councillors with their neighbourhoods work and will be proposed to become the Council’s new Deputy Leader at the forthcoming annual meeting. Meanwhile Cllr Dominic Beck will now lead on Transport and Environment, which includes roads, street scene services, and household waste collections.
Other sitting Cabinet members are as below:
• Cllr Sarah Allen: Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Working
• Cllr Victoria Cusworth: Cabinet Member for Children and Young People
• Cllr David Roche: Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health
• Cllr Denise Lelliott: Cabinet Member for Jobs and the Local Economy
• Cllr Dominic Beck: Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment
• Cllr David Sheppard: Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion
• Cllr Amy Brookes: Cabinet Member for Housing
• Cllr Saghir Alam: Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Community Safety and Finance
Cllr Chris Read said:
“I want to pay tribute to former cabinet members Gordon Watson and Cllr Emma Hoddinott whose services to the Cabinet have been a credit to the borough. After consultation I’m pleased to appoint Cllr Cusworth, Cllr Shepherd and Cllr Brookes to the Cabinet.
“Cllr Cusworth has been a long standing champion of Children’s Services, supporting our improvement journey from Scrutiny, and is a natural choice to fill the big shoes left by former councillor Gordon Watson. I am lucky enough to have a great advocate for social inclusion in Cllr Sheppard who I know will bring an increased focus to this important area of the council’s work, and Cllr Brookes has a wealth of knowledge relating to sustainable development which will support our investment in new housing.”
“The whole team is raring to start delivering on the detailed commitments we set out over the last few weeks, driving our agenda to build a better, fairer borough for all our residents.”