Former shipyard worker takes the helm as Derbyshire’s Lib Dem Group Leader

Derbyshire County Council Lib Dem Group Leader Tom Snowdon. Courtesy of DCC

A former shipyard worker who once toiled to support oil rigs has taken the helm as the newly-appointed Liberal Democrat Group Leader at Derbyshire County Council with his sights set on new community challenges as well as renewable energy schemes while addressing climate change and net zero.

Cllr Tom Snowdon, representing Walton, Brampton and Boythorpe, recently took over the key opposition role at the Reform UK-controlled council after County Cllr Ed Fordham stepped down as the Lib Dem Group Leader but he is continuing as a councillor for the Spire division of Chesterfield.

The new county Lib Dem leader, who also sits as a Chesterfield Borough Councillor for Walton, is addressing the challenges for the county and his Chesterfield patch not least the need to support the environment and the Government’s Local Government Reorganisation plans to merge county, borough, district and city councils into either one or two single unitary authorities.

He started his working life as an apprentice welder in a shipyard, studied for an engineering and computer science degree and then worked in the car industry before working across a number of countries eventually overseeing projects for an international renewable energy technology company.

Cllr Snowdon, who is originally from Hartlepool, is proud to say he was the first person in his family to get a degree. He said: “It’s been a journey over the decades and it was a real experience starting at the bottom like that in a shipyard in the North East where we were building steel oil rig jackets for the North Sea.

“It’s amazed me I started in off-shore working in an oil job and then ended-up eventually working in renewable energy building off-shore wind farms.”

Cllr Snowdon said he is very concerned about climate change and the need for energy security and he feels the best way forward is to get off the drip-feed of hydro-carbon – which is the energy generated by burning fossil fuels – and to increase renewable energy schemes.

He is angered that Reform UK – which is prioritising economic growth over net zero goals – believes any efforts towards net zero would have a minimal effect and he fears their policy is to get as much gas and oil as possible ‘while the rest of the planet burns’.

But he feels there is a need to set an example to other countries about what can be done.

Cllr Snowdon supports solar farms and battery energy storage systems on brownfield sites and fully supports moves to produce modular nuclear plants because he feels the UK has this technology and it should not be taking turbines from America.

However, he is concerned about plans to introduce underground carbon capture pipelines for Derbyshire’s cement and lime industries under the Peak Cluster scheme because he regards carbon capture as an ‘immature technology’.

Cllr Snowdon said: “The bigger concern is some pipes will be over land and close to villages in the Peak District and if that pipeline breaks it would be disastrous for people and wildlife.”

He also raised concerns about National Grid’s planned pylon roll-out across Derbyshire because he would like to see more cabling underground even though he understands this is more costly.

Cllr Snowdon also does not want to see Glossop’s household waste recycling site closed as is being proposed by Derbyshire County Council’s Reform administration because he feels this would create a huge inconvenience for residents forced to travel to Buxton compounding longer travel, creating queuing traffic and more harm with air pollution.

There are only three Liberal Democrats at Reform-led Derbyshire County Council, including Cllr Sue Burfoot for Matlock, but there are eleven at Labour-led Chesterfield Borough Council.

However, Cllr Snowdon was disappointed to see his late friend Cllr Paul Jacobs’ Lib Dem Staveley-North seat and his vacant Staveley Town Council seat both taken by Reform UK councillors in by elections.

Cllr Snowdon described Paul Jacobs, who lost his life to cancer, as a ‘great bloke and a really great friend’ who was ‘very effective’ and ‘pragmatic’ and a ‘really good politician’ who had made a ‘big impact’.

He also acknowledged the sad death of Labour Chesterfield Borough Cllr Steve Lismore who died in a climbing accident and whose vacant borough council Staveley-North seat was also taken by a Reform councillor in one of the by-elections.

Cllr Snowdon said: “Chesterfield Borough Council lost two very good contributors in the same ward within weeks of each other. I did not have a lot to do with Cllr Lismore but he seemed a good guy and that must have been hard for his family.”

During the local elections across England – which did not involve any Derbyshire councils apart from some by-elections – saw Reform UK make major gains taking over 1,000 seats while Labour suffered heavy losses including losing control of many councils while the Conservatives suffered significant losses, and the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party enjoyed some moderate success.

Cllr Snowdon said the by-elections in Staveley were an indicator about the way local and national politics is going and the Liberal Democrats have an awful lot of work to do to make sure good, hard-working candidates are elected in the future for local communities.

He praised his fellow Chesterfield Borough Cllr Paul Holmes, who is Lib Dem Group Leader at the borough council, as a ‘tower of strength’.

Following the Staveley by-elections, Cllr Holmes said the results were ‘agonisingly close’ and with another 21 votes the Liberal Democrats would have held their borough council seat and with another 35 votes they would have held the Staveley Town Council seat.

He argued the contest locally was between Reform and the Liberal Democrats while Labour and the Conservatives were ‘deeply unpopular’.

Cllr Holmes said: “Reform’s campaign was all about national issues which borough and town councils can do absolutely nothing at all about. However local elections all too often get swamped by national politics and that is just part of the democratic process.”

The borough council Lib Dem Leader said he has found Cllr Snowdon’s contribution over the last seven years to be ‘invaluable’ and that his wide, real world, experience of finance and management in large organisations is something that is greatly needed at the county council and even more so in the ‘vast and unwieldy’ expected new unitary authority that the Labour Government hopes to bring to Derbyshire.

Cllr Snowdon fears Local Government Reorganisation will see connections with communities lost with funding spread over wider regions with a loss of local assets as the Government plans to bring in changes in the next two years.

The Government is planning for new LGR areas to include elected mayors with more powers on planning and transport and it has argued that the changes will create savings, create greater efficiency, improve public services, and support economic growth.

But Cllr Snowdon said: “There is a problem where money will be spread across the region with LGR. I am not too fond of LGR in principle and it concerns me who will look after Chesterfield because we won’t have a body to focus on the needs of Chesterfield and it could be taken up with a north Derbyshire unitary.”

He added: “There is going to be a real dislocation between local people and the people who make the decisions for them.”

Cllr Snowdon is concerned that if any new authority is looking at making efficiencies it may consider selling-off some of Chesterfield Borough Council’s assets.

He added: “What sort of connection will they have with Chesterfield? We have non-regulatory stuff like the Winding Wheel Theatre which is a great asset but it is like a piece of low-hanging fruit for those wanting to cut costs.”

Cllr Snowdon suggested a way forward for the Winding Wheel’s survival would be to place it into the hands of private management but to still keep the asset within the local authority so it can make profits for the benefits of local residents.

He also suggested that under any changes he would like to have seen a system where certain local authority functions like accounts, HR, quality control and procurement could have been brought together on a regional and county basis while the budget and other direct functions, decisions and concerns directly affecting people could be taken up at a more localised level.

Cllr Snowdon added: “I think part of the problem is that Chesterfield Borough Council has an expiry date – best before 2028. I agree it is like another ‘zombie council’ and there has been a sea change already in the activity of the council.”

The county and borough councillor has also seen both Derbyshire County Council and Chesterfield Borough Council have to adjust to multi-million pound budget shortfalls with the introduction of cuts by the county’s former Conservative and current Reform administrations and the borough’s Labour administration.

He said the effects of what happened will be felt for longer to come and these cuts will go on and on or until the councils are dissolved under LGR devolution.

Cllr Snowdon said that previously councils felt far less commercial pressures but he added that the last 15 or 20 years have become harder and harder for all councils.

He acknowledged the Reform-led county council’s aspiration to bring in greater efficiency to get value for money for residents because he does not like to see money wasted but he feels this does not have to necessarily involve reducing services or cutting costs it can be about improving the gains and making things better for residents.

Cllr Snowdon was disappointed see parking fees increased under the borough council which he felt was counter-intuitive with a drive to try and get more people into the town centre.

He was also saddened to see annual green bin fees increased under the borough council by so much when considered alongside what would have been needed to simply meet inflation and sub-contractor costs.

Cllr Snowdon recognised that Government requirements also recently made it difficult for councils to do anything but increase their council tax bills but he felt this did not prevent councils from at least calling for their precepts to be at least in line with inflation.

Liberal Democrats have campaigned for both council tax rates to be frozen and for councillors’ allowances not to be increased.

One of the two big issues being addressed at Derbyshire County Council include the Reform UK’s failed plans to sell eight care homes which could now result in their closure and residents’ ongoing concerns about the state of the roads with potholes.

Cllr Snowdon said it is a ‘waste of money’ putting in patchwork repairs for potholes which come out in weeks when the council actually needs to spend more money on proper road resurfacing.

He also feels the county council’s plan to sell off eight care homes as part of restructuring its adult social care has been ‘badly handled’ and different options should have been considered but he personally does not have a problem with private companies coming in to manage homes as long as the council is diligent in providing and ensuring quality services.

County council Cabinet Member for Adult Care, Cllr Joss Barnes, has said the move to sell eight care homes follows a decline in demand for traditional residential care as people choose to stay in their homes for as long as possible and by the time they need to go into care they need more intensive support, such as nursing care, which the council cannot legally provide.

He has said he has been ‘devastated’ after the council had marketed the eight care homes on an individual basis and offers were invited for both single, multiple homes or as a whole package and the authority worked intensively to sell them all as going concerns but unfortunately the sale to a single provider could not be progressed.

Cllr Snowdon also feels more needs to be done to build more homes for residents because he says ‘Governments of all colours’ have failed to achieve this when many have known for years that there is a need to build about 300,000 properties each year.

He said: “Local Government should be about communities and party politics should be of secondary importance. I had seven years on Wingerworth Parish Council and there was an attitude that was less political and we worked together to make sure we could get stuff done for the village.

“At Chesterfield Borough Council there has always been party politics. But for local parties it’s about building a platform to win a seat in Parliament so it’s always present but I think the focus should be on getting things done for local people.”