The leadership of Sheffield Council is collapsing: What does this mean for residents?
Big things in the city - like the controversial Local Plan - could face further delays
Sheffield City Council leader Fran Belbin is set to propose tearing up Labour's relationship with Greens and leading the council alone.
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A motion is expected to be brought to a full council meeting on Wednesday 4 November, where every councillor present will have the chance to vote.
If the majority are in favour of a minority Labour administration, Greens will lose their leadership and positions as committee chairs.
This could mean the council will have to settle into new responsibilities, which could delay important decisions in the city, such as the Local Plan.
This is uncharted territory for Sheffield council, and follows national Labour demanding local Green groups to denounce their party’s ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion, or working relationships will end.
Across the country, 11 of the 18 councils where there are Labour-Green power sharing agreements are set to end their collaborations.
In Sheffield, it is expected that new committee chairs will be named and proposed on Wednesday.
In committees where there is a joint chair like Planning and Highways Committee, it is expected the Labour member would become chair.
Each Green-led committee has a Labour group spokesperson, who has expertise from attending the committee and could potentially become the chair.
It is expected that the Liberal Democrats will vote with Labour for a minority administration, as they had previously called the Zionism motion “incompatible with the values of our city” and called the Greens councillors who proposed it to resign.
Reform UK would also likely support voting for a minority Labour administration, as they called the break up “potentially excellent news for our city.”
Labour only have 26 out of 84 Sheffield councillors.
In a larger administration, parties are whipped into collective decision making.
With a weaker administration, parties that are not currently in leadership would have more sway over decisions and votes.
This means big things in the city - like the controversial Local Plan - could face further delays.
With more than a day until the meeting, the outcome is not confirmed.