Cllr. Clare Coghill steps down as Leader

Cllr. Clare Coghill has announced she is stepping down as Leader of LBWF, and not standing as a councillor at next year’s election.

In the past few months, sources have told this blog that she was being seen in the borough less and less, and her departure may be related to a previous post here, ‘Love amongst the Leaders: Councillors Clare Coghill and Simon Blackburn’.

How history will judge Cllr. Coghill’s four years in office remains to be seen. Unsurprisingly, she appears to believe she has been a success. But as this blog has documented at length, she has presided over a number of controversies, not least the fire safety scandal at Northwood Tower and four sheltered housing blocks, now subject to litigation, and an internal fraud inquiry; while her personal style has on occasion grated.

For a self-declared feminist to lead a council where the gender pay gap is double the size of the UK borough average speaks for itself.

However, if she has indeed resigned so as to lead a happier life, that is refreshing and in many ways exemplary.

Politics is a hard business, but life is precious.

So this blog wishes her well for the future

And as to her successor, what price Cllr. Loakes?