New Shirehall leader, Keith Barrow, has stressed the need for cross-party unity to help secure more money for Shropshire schools.

He has given an assurance that his Tory administration will not close small rural schools as a way of tackling falling pupils and the loss of Government funding. But he told the first meeting of Shropshire Council yesterday that funding problems had not been solved.

Councillor Barrow said county schools were doing a “fantastic job” with limited resources.

Shropshire had the third lowest funding allocation per child in England and Councillor Barrow said the authority had to fight to safeguard larger primary schools as well as smaller ones.

He added that he would be delighted if there was cross-party working to tackle the problem.

Councillor Barrow was formally elected council leader at the meeting.

His Tory group has 54 of the 74 seats.

He said the administration would be looking to keep council tax increases down but at the same time providing quality services.

There was, he said, a feeling of optimism among the new members at the Shirehall.

But Lib Dem leader, Peter Phillips, whose group has 11 members, said the Conservatives election triumph had been the result of boundary changes.

He said the Tories had secured less than half the votes cast in this month’s election but had taken three quarter of the seats.

Councillor Phillips also criticised the new administration for taking the chairmanship of three of the five watchdog scrutiny committees, saying it sent the “wrong message” to the people of Shropshire.

Former county council leader, Malcolm Pate, was elected chairman. He was ousted as Conservative leader in a secret ballot of party members after their election victory.

But he brought laughter and applause to the council chamber when he said: “I thank you for the honour you have bestowed on me. It’s not exactly the job I was expecting.”

Councillor David Lloyd was elected Speaker.

By Dave Morris