Cllr Tony Hall

New chairman says it's good to share

Cllr Tony Hall was appointed chairman of the executive joint committee at its annual meeting last month. Member representative for Staffordshire Moorlands, he took over the reins from Cllr Matthew Ellis, deputy leader of Lichfield.

Speaking after his appointment, Cllr Hall said he wanted the partnership to:

• Share all the good ideas of individual partners
• Work together to improve services by shaping them around community need
• Find new ways of working right across the public sector
• Continue the good work of the customer service teams in making services easier to access.

Cllr Hall was first elected to Staffordshire Moorlands in 1974 and has served the authority in three spells, the most recent stint starting in 1999. The joint committee's new vice chairman is Cllr Brian Edwards, leader of South Staffordshire. He has served on joint committee since the partnership began in 2002, and was chairman in 2004/05.

Cllr Edwards has been a member of the South Staffordshire authority for 26 years and has been a county councillor for 20 years. He said that South Staffordshire's commitment to the partnership was signalled by the fact that its leader had sat on joint committee since the outset.