[8][9][10] During his time as Council Leader, Pugh implemented a series of major policy changes, including: an Islandwide reorganisation of schools; the securing of £487m grant funding from the government for Island roads through a PFI scheme[11] the introduction of an award-winning[12] Council pre-apprenticeship scheme to prepare young people for full apprenticeships, and new waste collection arrangements which increased recycling rates but initially caused a record 60,491 phone calls to be made to County Hall in January 2012 following their introduction.

[16] With growing fears over the future of the Isle of Wight's rail service, Island Line, which at the time required over £40 million of investment to keep going, Pugh formed cross-party campaign group "Keep Island Line in Franchise (KILF)" alongside previous Labour party election candidates Deborah Gardiner & Stewart Blackmore.

It’s bl**dy typical.”[19] On 31 March 2018, Chris Whitehouse suspended all his involvement with the Conservative Association for 6 months due to Pugh's appointment as chairman.

[20] During his time as Council Leader Pugh was involved an incident outside a Charity Valentine's Ball at Cowes Yacht Haven, in which he swore at Carole Dennett, the parliamentary assistant and partner of then MP Andrew Turner telling her to "fucking leave us alone".

This included the publication of a letter written to all members of the Isle of Wight council by Carole Dennett in which she stated she was unhappy with the way the investigation into an alleged breach of the code of conduct was handled.

Pugh stated "...it is for the independent leadership of the Council to explain on what grounds they exonerated the two senior officers on whose watch this major project was not delivered on time, on budget or fit-for-purpose, leaving this legacy of problems...".

Further to this, Pugh accepted 'overall political responsibility' for the Cowes Enterprise College project's defects, and once again sought to lay the blame at the feet of two former council officers.

"[27] Pugh noted in his public letter, dated 25 April 2014, that he considered one of the Islands Council's officers "bore operational responsibility alongside the Chief Executive", and questioned the appropriateness of their exoneration and the use taxpayers' money to pay them a settlement.

Despite unveiling plans to reform education on the island which were seen as contentious, prior to the announcement of the results Pugh stated that he had been "Quietly confident securing a majority".

[31] When the final results were declared, some key players involved with the education reform plans had lost their seats, but Pugh managed to retain his with a comfortable majority.

This is a difficult ward politically for Labour to win, and this decision has been taken to maximise the vote in opposition to the cuts in the public services to Shanklin taken by this Conservative Council.