It's all go go go

Sitting in her office at the Civic Offices as I prepared to interview her, however, I could not help feeling a little like the hangman preparing to slip the noose around her neck: "Any last requests?"

But if my presence was unappreciated in the corridors of Labour power, Sue Bates was trying hard not to show it.

"Cup of coffee?", she asked as I sat down under a wall plastered with happy snaps of her posing with the various ministers and royalty that have visited the town over the seven years since she first took charge.

She told me how she had just got off the phone to the Deputy Prime Minister's office. He clearly wanted to know why a council judged to be failing its two biggest departments is now losing its two main leaders (the council's chief executive, Paul Doherty, is currently negotiating his severance package while on holiday).

Coun Bates explained the background to the decision: "It was not easy to make and it is one that has shocked my group I think there is a feeling of numbness among them.

"I've been under no pressure from anybody to leave but I've been thinking about it for a couple of weeks now.

"I have consulted some confidantes and I believe it is the right decision it is a case of putting the services of the council before my own personal ego.

"The council must go forward or face the risk of serious intervention from the Government. The other political groups are using me as an excuse for non-cooperation in resolving these serious issues and by removing myself from the equation, it removes that excuse."

When Coun Bates became leader seven years ago, she was the first woman to do so in the town's history, and did so after surviving a challenging past.

As a child, her parents emigrated to Australia and soon after separated and she and her brother were placed in children's homes while her father sought work.

At 10 years old, they returned to England but she did not see her mum again until 1981 after she found her through the Salvation Army. She visited three times before her mum died of a brain tumour on Christmas Day in 1993.

Coun Bates, who until recently worked as a care assistant in her day job, said that a working class upbringing had been difficult, and she had never expected to achieve what she has.

"The leadership of the council has been a most wonderful privilege for someone from my background," she explained.

"I have not had an easy life and I feel privileged to have got as far as I've got.

"I tend to have an extremely low opinion of myself and I know there are people in the town who feel the same about me, but while that can be hurtful, I have learned that most of the time, the negative stuff has been politically motivated."

Despite that low self-esteem, Coun Bates is known as an uncompromising character. Her grit is perhaps illustrated by the fact she was ousted as leader by Maurice Fanning in 1998, only to return to the fore the following year.

She led again for two more years, before her group stood down last October following the motion of no confidence passed by the council in the wake of the damning Ofsted report on the council's education department.

Yet still she returned to be leader for a third time, champing at the bit to take back the reigns.

To give a further example of her character, many will recall how she came to blows with another councillor in a private meeting four months after becoming leader in 1995.

The Advertiser reported how Coun Bates was said to have pushed Matthew Pearce now the Liberal Democrat's political assistant and threatened to "take him outside" to deal with him.

Perhaps that was what she was thinking of when she paused for so long at my question: "Any regrets?"

Eventually she answered: "I think I would be a very foolish person indeed if I didn't admit that, at times, things have been extremely testing and trying.

"I have always made decisions and led my group with strong conviction, and been able to argue the reasoning behind those convictions.

"If you are asking whether I would have done things differently, well, probably, yes. If you are asking what things I would have done differently, I don't think I could name them."

There have certainly been things to regret which have happened at the Civic Offices over the last seven years.

Most recently, the social services department appears to have gone into freefall, with its budget running out of control and heading £1.9 million into the red just weeks after being damned as one of the worst 10 social services departments in the country.

Before that, there was the well-documented decline of the education service, in which the council was accused by inspectors of creating a climate of "confusion, suspicion and mistrust" in its rocky relationship with the town's schools.

There is the WS Atkins benefits and revenues saga, documented on today's front page in full gory detail.

There is the failure to replace the ramshackle hut that purports to be the Central Library with a more fitting civic building.

And there is the perpetual decline of the grade II listed Mechanics' Institute and other historic buildings in the town.

All these and more have gone wrong, but, with the exception of the most recent social services problems, they were all going wrong before Coun Bates took back the poisoned chalice of leading the council from the Tories in May.

So how have things changed so quickly in the last three months?

When her group was voted back in as the administration, Coun Bates proclaimed a change of culture had taken place at the council and that she was sure the 'joint-working' would continue.

It is that cooperation between groups that she claims has been lost, effectively leading to her resignation, although she says she knew this was going to be her last year as leader before it started.

"All leaders have a shelf life and the council is bigger than one individual," she said. "I had already spoken to my deputy, Kevin Small, to say I felt this was going to be my last year, because I felt fresh blood and new enthusiasm was needed.

"When I became leader again in May, there was unfinished business and I had hoped to see the council through these troubled times.

"But circumstances change and it's clear now that I'm just being used as a political football. I hope people will see my resignation for what it is a message of good intent. The fact is that I wasn't pushed to go and if I'm prepared to stand aside for the good of the council, I hope people read that in the manner it was intended."

But did the impending departure of Mr Doherty play a part in her decision?

"I will not talk about individual contracts," she responded. "But I will put on record my total disgust that confidential information relating to the chief executive's position was leaked and I would ask who would want to work for an authority where you clearly have extremely senior members of this council who have no respect for their workforce and just want to make petty party political points the whole time."

As for the future, Coun Bates says she has been strongly urged to take a seat on the new cabinet, because of her experience and knowledge, but she is planning to think long and hard about doing so.

"I'll give it some serious thought, but if we need a new direction, I don't want to be seen as a hindrance to that in any shape or form," she said.

"I will, however, remain serving as a councillor for my ward (Gorse Hill and Pinehurst) and I will remain tenacious in fighting for the people I represent."

So, any last requests Coun Bates?

"I just hope everyone sees sense and stop the political in-fighting and move forward for the good of the services and the people of the borough.

"It doesn't matter who the leader or the chief executive is, the work on the table still has to be done.

"People must realise that and stop making everything personal."