Conservative councillor Philippa Roe was last night voted the new leader of Westminster city council.
Roe, who was elected to the council in 2006, and represents the Knightsbridge and Belgravia ward, will replace the current leader, councillor Colin Barrow, who has been at the centre of controversy over proposed new weekend and evening parking charges in the West End.
He announced his resignation last month, and 34-year old Roe went up against councillor Ed Argar and councillor Glenys Roberts for the leader post.
Barrow said: “Roe started the renewal of our housing estates and has seen the council through the toughest budget in its recent history. She will be the 11th leader of the city council since it was formed in 1965.”
He added: “It has been a great privilege to lead this council for four years and I am sure that she will be successful as leader and take forward policies that enable people to live, and business to thrive, in the heart of London.”
Roe will have to deal with the aftermath of Barrow’s parking hike proposals, which West End landlords attacked. The Howard de Walden Estate claimed that charges could reduce trade and ultimately lose it tenants on Marylebone High Street.
The high court scrapped the plans that were due to come into effect on 9 January, until a judicial review application brought by Peter Wetherell, managing director of Mayfair agent Wetherell, is heard later this month.
Any new charges are now unlikely to come into force until at least after the 2012 London Olympics.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
