Derrick Murphy poised to become leader of Norfolk County Council

By Jonathan Isaby

Following the decision of Nofolk County Council Leader Daniel Cox to step down, the controlling Conservative group met yesterday to elect a replacement.

The successful candidate for the Tory leadership was Derrick Murphy (pictured), who beat colleagues William Nunn and John Dobson in a three-horse race. He can expect to be rubber stamped as the new leader of the council on Monday.

The current deputy leader, he told the Norwich Evening News that he was "honoured and humbled" to have been elected, before outlining the challenges he faces:

“The challenges we’re facing are fairly self evident and are considerable. We are looking to protect front-line services but reduce costs through efficiency savings and innovative ways of delivering local government services. We are in the middle of the budgetary process and we are legislating for a 25% reduction in revenues, so we are looking at every department in great detail. That is work which is well underway and we will continue with.”