Former council post room worker becomes leader
LDRSA former council post room worker has been formally elected as the authority's leader.
Labour's Alex Winning did postal work at Southampton City Council at the age of 16, before working in the council's HR and adult services teams, according to his LinkedIn account.
He takes over an authority which has been allowed exceptional support by the government to prevent financial collapse.
Mr Winning is the authority's third leader in two years after Satvir Kaur became an MP and Lorna Fielker resigned to run for regional mayor.
The father of one, who was previously the council's cabinet member for children and learning, said he wanted the authority to be "brilliant at the basics".
He said he understood residents' "strong feelings" about missed waste collections and the recently-ended car ban in Portswood Road.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "People in Southampton, all they want is basic services delivered. We have to be doing that.
"We're fully aware that things haven't been good enough for some time in waste, and we're as frustrated as residents with that."
He endorsed the decision to scrap the Portswood Road bus gate trial after it caused increased traffic in neighbouring roads.
The leader said: "At the end of the day, it didn't work in the way that we wanted it to and we needed to be quite honest about that.
"There are residents that are sad to see it go. Obviously, there was a lot that were very happy to see it go. It won't be coming back."
Mr Winning, who was born and raised in Southampton, said he "never in a million years" thought he would be the council's leader and said he would "take the role incredibly seriously".
Additional reporting by Marcus White, BBC News, Southampton
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