THE new leader of Basingstoke council says he is going to tread carefully as he heads the joint Liberal Democrat/Labour administration for the next year.

Liberal Democrat leader Brian Gurden was elected to the hot seat by a single vote at last Thursday's knife-edge full council meeting.

Cllr Gurden told The Gazette: "The closeness of the voting means we will all have to be on our best behaviour. There is going to be a premium on listening to the other point of view."

The June 10 local elections left the Conservatives and the joint administration with 28 seats each, meaning the four Independent councillors effectively hold the balance of power.

Cllr Gurden, who has previously been council leader for a total of two-and-a-half years, said he is aware some councillors find his style somewhat abrasive.

He explained: "I'm sure I'm not so unusual in that respect. But what I bring is continuity and experience."

The surprise defeat of Cllr Rob Donnelly, the previous leader, was part of the local election setback for Labour which left the Liberal Democrats the majority partner in the ruling coalition.

Cllr Gurden said he intends to carry on with the policies of the administration which has ruled the borough for the last nine years.

But he said an agreement seems likely with the opposition, so not all councillors have to be present for every vote and council business can be conducted in a "civilised way" with some stability.

A meeting of all councillors tonight will finish the business left over from last Thursday and fix the chairmanships of the council committees.

Looking ahead, Cllr Gurden said although the council achieved "excellent" status in its recent inspection report, the emphasis is going to be on tackling the remaining areas for improvement. These include speeding up the processing of applications for benefit and planning matters, street care and refuse collection.

Cllr Gurden said with the council's investment income down, big projects are off the agenda - but he added the council's land-holdings will have to "deliver bigger gains".

He said this could include the sort of development schemes outlined for Churchill Way and the New Road car parks or the arrival of furnishings giant IKEA in the town on council property - as previously reported in The Gazette.

Providing affordable housing is also a major priority.

He said: "We will need to work hard on that just to meet the internal needs of our own community and not to impede our natural rate of growth."

Other plans include greater use of CCTV in the town centre, and Cllr Gurden's pet project - the extension of the controversial "pink shuttle bus" to cover Basingstoke hospital.

Cllr Gurden said he would also like to see some progress towards refurbishing The Malls shopping area of Basingstoke town centre.

On the sensitive subject of roads and traffic-calming, he said: "One of our catchphrases could be 'roads are for cars, streets are for people'. That could be a mechanism to bridge our street care plans with ways of making life more pleasurable for the motorist. We are not anti-car."