After this month's elections the Conservatives and Labour were left with 27 councillors each with UKIP's three councillors holding the balance of power.
The UKIP group approached both the Labour and Conservative groups to negotiate a coalition with an agreement to abolish the cabinet system and reinstate the committee system so that all councillors are able to take part in the decision making process as a prerequisite. Labour refused to give up any power whilst the Conservatives grudgingly agreed to reinstate the committee system.
The outgoing Labour leader, Cllr Tudor Evans, is unimpressed at losing his £41,470 a year job and described the UKIP-Conservative coalition as "a grubby back room deal". He said that Labour won the popular vote even though more people voted for someone else than they did for Labour and that it is "not the will of the public that Labour should not continue to lead the council". He believes that the council being run by a coalition of 30 councillors is less representative than the council being run by Labour's 27 councillors on their own.
You can read the joint UKIP-Conservative manifesto for Plymouth here.
wonkotsane is an author at Bloggers4UKIP.
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