I do love reading Rowland Taylor's Ghost: the spectre is a very entertaining and eloquent wordsmith. I just wish his numeracy and fact-checking were up to the same standard.

His recent assessment of the state of the Babergh administration and the reasons for the changes in the number of Conservative councillors are way off the mark. Firstly, there were 28 (out of 43) councillors in my group when I first became leader in January 2018.

A boundary review meant that Babergh would only have 32 councillors after the May 2019 election and the electorate decided that there should only be 15 Conservatives, returning Babergh to no overall control. At this point three of the Independents were former Conservatives, two of whom are very supportive of me and left the party for reasons unconnected with my leadership of the council.

The latest departure, Cllr Elisabeth Malvisi, was again due to reasons unconnected with my leadership and has actually been beneficial as I have been able to retain a very good councillor in the cabinet, rather than being forced to lose her.

It gave me the opportunity to split the very large Environment portfolio and create a new Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Transport portfolio, giving the latter to Cllr Malvisi as this subject is close to her heart.

She has been instrumental in developing our Carbon Reduction Management Plan and Biodiversity Action Plan, and delivering projects arising from those crucial plans to enable us to achieve our 'net zero by 2030' commitment. All without the help of wood nymphs.

The remainder of the Environment portfolio – waste, licensing, food & safety, public realm (essentially, grass cutting and road sweeping) and, yes, parking – is now Cllr Dawson's responsibility.

Which brings me on to the vexed matter of short-term parking charges. This is undoubtedly the most controversial and emotive subject that the council has ever had to address. We knew it would be and it has been discussed, at least within the Conservative group, for more than five years.

The financial imperatives that lie behind the cabinet decision earlier this year still remain, but we do recognise that the recovery is fragile and a further postponement would be a popular move.

We will keep a close eye on how our businesses are doing, but we also have to be mindful of our looming medium term deficit and, more immediately, the impact on our finances of this year's spending review when the government announces it soon. We are no longer specifying an implementation date but we will keep the matter under regular review.

I must at this point correct our spooky friend and clarify that the revised parking tariffs were the cabinet's plan, not mine alone, and it is a collective decision to postpone.

Of course, it has been a difficult decision and there are very strongly held views that have divided all groups on the council. My personal approach to leadership is one of consensus, not confrontation, and this has been successful in the four years I have been leader.

To conclude, the cabinet has evolved and is now more diverse with a full complement of 10, but the coalition I have built remains strong and will see us through to the 2023 election.

Read Rowland Taylor Ghosts' controversial column here...

• Despite false claims to the contrary - Rowland Taylor's column is written by a Hadleigh resident who is NOT employed by Nub News and is entirely their opinion.

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