The way forward for East Sussex: what being leader has shown me
Cllr Andy Woolley, leader of East Sussex County Council
The past two months have been the busiest of my life.
I was elected leader of your county council in May. Since then, I’ve plunged into the work needed to understand how I and my team might improve life for people in East Sussex.
In my view, a change of approach is needed. Voters gave Reform UK most seats on the council, and my colleagues and I want to deliver.
I’m not much interested in party politics though. My job is to improve things for people in East Sussex (no matter who they vote for) and to work with anyone who can help (no matter what party they’re in).
But this is going to be hard. We knew that before the elections, but the work we’ve put in since shows us just what a massive challenge this is and spotlights some areas where you deserve improvements.
Here are five things I’ve already learned in this job.
1. There will have to be choices about where we can make progress.
More than three-quarters of all the council’s spending is on social care and education. Mostly that means caring for your relatives, friends or neighbours who need extra help because they’re elderly, frail, disabled or at risk of harm.
We want to do this anyway of course, but it’s also a legal duty. So that leaves just a quarter of spending for everything else – including roads.
This year the council is able to spend about £15m maintaining your roads. To bring them all up to a perfect standard would cost around £350m – a fantasy figure.
There are no extra pots of money and moving even smaller sums from one council service to another would be complicated.
We will need to carefully select the limited areas where we might make a difference.
2. There are already success stories
If you want to know what the council’s already doing, have a look at its results for the past year. End of Year Monitoring 2025-26
The report shows it hit 44 of its 57 targets (with another seven still to be finalised).
These achievements came under the previous leadership, but they show what a difference the council makes to people’s lives. For example, the council:
· supported almost 800 local businesses
· helped more disadvantaged pupils hit expected standards for reading, writing and maths
· gave practical help to more than 99 per cent of people seeking adult social care support
· made road safety improvements at 24 higher-risk spots.
Council staff work hard and deliver results wherever they can.
3. But we know there are areas where you deserve better
Across the country, parents of children with special educational need or disability (SEND) are feeling the pressure of a system which often can’t promptly deliver the support they need.
Bluntly, like the rest of the country, the system in East Sussex is struggling to keep up with demand and this pressure is why the government is urgently trying to reform how these services are offered. There is already a plan under way here in East Sussex to adjust to those reforms, with more specialist support and opportunity in mainstream schools where needed.
Another area where we want to take a close look at what’s possible is our roads – which aren’t good enough.
We know how limited funding is, but we want to grip this issue and squeeze out any possible improvements in how we look after our highways.
4. Our focus is on ‘how’ things are done
This summer I and my cabinet colleagues are diving into the detail of how things are done at the council.
Can we spot ways to be more efficient or effective?
We can only do this if we fully understand how it works now and why it’s organised that way. Often it will already work well.
But we have fresh eyes and experience in business and organisation which may help us suggest improvements.
East Sussex, with its very high elderly population, needs much better funding from the government, and we’ll keep asking for exactly that. But we may also be able to do more with what we have.
5. Our plan will take shape this autumn
I expect to outline our plan and priorities for East Sussex from September.
By then we’ll have examined the evidence and fully understood how things are operating now.
We’ll be able to set out clear options for change, work with council officers and members of other parties, and present them clearly and democratically to residents of East Sussex.
We don’t yet have all the answers, but we do have a determination to change things for the better, everywhere we can.
We also want to make sure we’re transparent about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and how it will affect people in East Sussex. We will keep you informed.
As I said, this is already one of the most hectic times of my life - it’s only going to get busier.
It reflects the size of the challenge we’re taking on together and the positive differences you expect to see from us.
The hard work continues.
Ends.
Karen Bowles
Tuesday, 21 July 2026