Members of Cotswold District Council have elected Cllr Tony Berry as their new leader for the remainder of the Council term (until May 2019).

Cllr Berry, who previously served on the Planning and Licensing Committee and the Audit Committee, has been the ward member for Kemble since May 2015 and recently took over as leader of the Conservative group. He succeeds Cllr Mark Annett who stood down as the Leader of the Council in late September after a bout of ill health.

Commenting on his new appointment, Cllr Berry said;

"This is a great honour for me and I am very grateful to my predecessor for his much appreciated contribution over a period of eighteen months, even when he was battling with illness.

"We are very fortunate to live in such a lovely part of the country but there are still many difficult challenges we must face as councillors to ensure that residents can enjoy life to the full. We have two political groups in the Council who have ideological differences on the best course of action at times, but we are all united in the fact that we care for local people and, as Leader I will strive to ensure that we all do our best to meet their needs."