TELFORD’S LABOUR party has axed its leader just two days after he led them to victory in the borough elections.

Keith Austin has been ousted as leader of Telford & Wrekin’s Labour group in favour of Kuldip Singh Sahota.

Councillor Sahota is now poised to become leader of Telford & Wrekin Council after he was voted in by colleagues at a meeting on Saturday.

Councillor Sahota today said: “It is a new challenge for me.

“I have been an opposition backbencher and have a wide range of experience, working on the council for the last 10 years and as a member of the police authority.

“There are quite a lot of new councillors in the Labour group and I am looking forward to working with them, sticking to my agenda and carrying out the mandate the people of the borough have given us.”

Councillor Austin, a councillor in Telford since 1981 and leader of the Labour group since 2004, said he was disappointed at losing the leadership but added: “When you are in a democratic organisation things like this happen.

“Everyone’s position is up for grabs after an election and that includes the leader’s.”

One of Councillor Sahota’s first acts as Labour leader was to vow to rent out offices being built as part of the town’s £250 million Southwater development which have been earmarked as the new headquarters for the authority.

Councillor Sahota said he and his Labour group would be checking to see if it was not too late to abandon plans by the council to move to the Southwater site.

He said if it was possible, the council would look outside of the town centre for new civic headquarters.

The previous Tory adminstration had wanted to move the council headquarters to Southwater following the sale to Asda of its existing Malinslee House base on the outskirts of the town centre. Councillor Sahota said: “We are going to draw up our budget in our first 100 days or less, if possible.

“That means scrutinising everything and seeing what can be restructured or re-timed to allow us to do it without borrowing large amounts of money.

“We currently have £190 million of debt and that will rise to about £277 million by 2012 under existing plans. Servicing that debt will cost taxpayers £3.5 million to £7 million in interest payments every year.

“We are looking at the new civic centre plan and want to know whether contracts have been signed or not. The only contract we know which has been signed is for ground preparation work on site. We will have to decide how we move ahead if we are contractually obliged to move to Southwater. We want to give best value to council taxpayers.

“If contracts have not been signed, we don’t want to move to Southwater but will rent the building out as it is a premium site and would attract a very good rent. The council would retain a presence in the town centre though so that people could still pay bills and get advice and help.”

Councillor Sahota added, in relation to Southwater, he wanted the council to work with the Southwater Event Groups and Hark Apollo and take the plans forward.