A council leader has admitted that there have been “ups and downs” during his tenure after being re-elected to lead his party despite opposition from many of his colleagues.

Jason Kitcat was the only declared candidate in the Green Party’s annual election to be convenor of its Brighton and Hove City Council group of councillors.

But despite facing no opposition for the post, 49 of the 126 Green Party members who voted chose to re-open nominations.

Of the 23 Green Party members in public office who voted, only 12 voted in favour of Coun Kitcat.

Despite squeezing back into the post, he will remain in the role for another 12 months.

Coun Kitcat, who was elected leader of the council nearly a year ago, said he was delighted to be re-elected.

He added: “I don’t think it’s entirely true that nearly half our members don’t support me. There were some people who didn’t vote, for example.

“The important thing is there are significant numbers who did back me and it was a winning result.

“There is hard work to do as it’s a tough time for local government right now, but I’m committed to the cause.

“It’s inevitable there will be ups and downs but we’ve achieved a lot so far.

Making progress

“We’ve got the £3m City Deal status for Greater Brighton, we’re expecting news soon on the Rugby World Cup and we delivered a sound budget.

“We have a fantastic new chief executive for the council too and we are making lots of progress.

“But there is still lots of work to do.

“We face a situation where councils are being cut harder and Brighton and Hove was the second hardest hit in the country.

“All things considered, we’ve done really well. We need to weather the tidal waves and storms that we’ll face ahead but we’re ready to work hard.”

See the latest news headlines from The Argus:

More news from The Argus

Follow @brightonargus

The Argus: Daily Echo on Facebook - facebook.com/southerndailyecho Like us on Facebook

The Argus: Google+ Add us to your circles on Google+