A NEW council regime has been announced 11 days after elections were held.

Stockton Borough Council will be run by a coalition of Labour and the Ingleby Barwick Independent Society (IBIS).

The leader of the Labour group, Councillor Bob Cook, will take over as leader of the council later this month.

Labour fell two seats short of an overall majority with 27 and will work with the third strongest group, IBIS, which has six councillors.

IBIS councillors will be granted two of the eight cabinet posts, but the group has not been given any specific concessions.

IBIS supports a secondary school in Ingleby Barwick which is free from local authority control, an idea opposed by many in the Labour Party.

But Coun Cook said he did not think the issue would cause problems.

He said: "Whether to grant a free school or not isn't in the gift of the council anyway. It's up to Michael Gove, the Education Secretary.

"We know we have different policies, but we're being sensible and, hopefully, we can work in harmony for the good of the people of Stockton."

He added: "We all recognise the challenges in the face of 28 per cent cuts from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government and I know we can work effectively together to protect services."

IBIS group leader Councillor Ken Dixon said his party expected to receive cabinet posts for arts and culture and one of the finance roles.

He said: "We didn't ask for a lot of specific concessions. We wanted a stable council for these austere times.

"I know we may have differences from time to time, but we'll work hard together to reconcile them in everyone's best interests."

The cabinet will share collective responsibility for delivering the council plan and overseeing the medium term financial plan making annual budget recommendations to the full council.

Both parties have also agreed to support the annual budget already recommended.

The Conservatives have 12 councillors and their leader, Councillor Ken Lupton, is expected to remain as council leader until later this month.

He had also been in negotiations with various groups on the council, including IBIS, but said he had not been told about the announcement of a new governing coalition when contacted by The Northern Echo.

"I have no comment at this time, " he said.