Councillor Jim Grant to take over from Derique Montaut

10:29pm Monday 9th May 2011 in News By Adam Kula

JIM Grant has been elected as the new leader of the Swindon Labour group.

At a meeting behind closed doors tonight, the now 17-strong collection of Labour councillors got to elect their new boss following the resignation of the old one.

Retiring leader Derique Montaut was treated to a round of applause before councillors got down to the real business of voting.

Three councillors were vying for the position as leader – Jim Grant (Western), Mark Dempsey (Parks) and Bob Wright (Central).

They were each given five minutes to give a speech before the secret ballot was held.

The breakdown of votes is not known but no candidate received an outright majority and a second round of voting had to be held before Coun Grant was declared the winner.

Coun Grant, of Old Town, is married with two children and works at the police call centre in Trowbridge. He has been a Labour councillor for three years.

Coun Dempsey will be his deputy.

Comments(13)

SpeakUp says...
12:18am Tue 10 May 11

Congratulations Mr Kula. I factual article, devoid of extravagant claims promoting the Labour party. That's better.

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A.Baron-Cohen says...
11:13am Tue 10 May 11

behind closed doors nominations, hardly a recipe for transparency and trying to connect with your electorate.
Strange way to have local primaries......

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stratton man says...
11:16am Tue 10 May 11

I have voted for all the mainstream parties over the years.The Advers political coverage is broadly fair and unbiased.Its unpleasent to see a rabid Tory try to bully a good Reporter doing his job.If you dont like whats reported lobby the Council to change its policies.Dont shoot the messenger.

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I 2 Could B says...
11:26am Tue 10 May 11

adam kula is a very new reporter at the adver. his pro-labour bias has already been noticed by plenty of people, not all of whom can be dismissed as 'rabid tories'. if you've read his numerous articles about last week's elections and found them 'fair and balanced', i'd say it's likely you're actually a rabid socialist sticking up for your own.

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A.Baron-Cohen says...
1:25pm Tue 10 May 11

I 2 Could B wrote:
adam kula is a very new reporter at the adver. his pro-labour bias has already been noticed by plenty of people, not all of whom can be dismissed as 'rabid tories'. if you've read his numerous articles about last week's elections and found them 'fair and balanced', i'd say it's likely you're actually a rabid socialist sticking up for your own.
put this into prospective......the great majority of newspapers are pro-conservative....
so it is rather refreshing to have a journalist with another view point, surely you/we should be celebrating not moaning about diversity of opinions.....

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SpeakUp says...
7:02pm Tue 10 May 11

stratton man wrote:
I have voted for all the mainstream parties over the years.The Advers political coverage is broadly fair and unbiased.Its unpleasent to see a rabid Tory try to bully a good Reporter doing his job.If you dont like whats reported lobby the Council to change its policies.Dont shoot the messenger.
Please, stratton man, read the stories posted online on Friday morning. Mr Kula actually stated 'the clear toin this election was Labour'. Clear nonsense and much-criticised, rightly so. I therefore felt it appropriate, in the interests of fairness. to compliment the same journalist when a report he wrote was actually reasonable. Hopefully he'll be encouraged to be rather less astonishing in future too.

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SpeakUp says...
7:03pm Tue 10 May 11

SpeakUp wrote:
stratton man wrote: I have voted for all the mainstream parties over the years.The Advers political coverage is broadly fair and unbiased.Its unpleasent to see a rabid Tory try to bully a good Reporter doing his job.If you dont like whats reported lobby the Council to change its policies.Dont shoot the messenger.
Please, stratton man, read the stories posted online on Friday morning. Mr Kula actually stated 'the clear toin this election was Labour'. Clear nonsense and much-criticised, rightly so. I therefore felt it appropriate, in the interests of fairness. to compliment the same journalist when a report he wrote was actually reasonable. Hopefully he'll be encouraged to be rather less astonishing in future too.
sorry - "toin" read "winner in"! not sure what happened there!!

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I Too says...
9:02pm Tue 10 May 11

I 2 Could B wrote:
adam kula is a very new reporter at the adver. his pro-labour bias has already been noticed by plenty of people, not all of whom can be dismissed as 'rabid tories'. if you've read his numerous articles about last week's elections and found them 'fair and balanced', i'd say it's likely you're actually a rabid socialist sticking up for your own.
New log in Mr B?

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itsamess says...
9:38pm Tue 10 May 11

I Too--just after closing time too?

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I Too says...
11:51pm Tue 10 May 11

Ah.
I wasn't thinking of that Mr B

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itsamess says...
12:08am Wed 11 May 11

one and the same person

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I Too says...
7:21am Wed 11 May 11

If the Adver is biased towards Labour why did they highlight Dale Heenan (Conservative), as the councillor calling for stalling the Coate development.

That was in the run up to the local elections.

It was Mark Dempsey (Labour) who initially called for a rejection of the plans

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I 2 Could B says...
8:17am Wed 11 May 11

itsamess wrote:
one and the same person
is the adver politically biased as a whole? no, i don't believe so. is adam kula biased as a journalist and in his articles? yes, without any doubt.

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