EGGS ALL IN ONE BASKET

Advised today by the Cabinet member that the Hants & IW Learning & Skills Council (LSC) - which is reponsible for post 16 education - wants to develop a £25m 1200 place 6th form college at the IW College for use from 2009, using government money. Effectively that is our entire requirement here on the Island.

As this would have massive implications for our existing sixth form provision within High Schools, the Council will ensure wide consultation in the autumn term. This will be a fascinating debate in the light of what happened over middle schools last year.......

Additionally the further £25m government grant to rebuild one of our secondary schools, may mean just that - a school for 11-16/18 year olds, not 13 -16/18. This is being clarified as agian that has implications for how Island education is organised.

OH DEAR, OH DEAR......

A packed Scrutiny Committee agenda, successfully completed, ended in very bad feeling last night.

With only two hours to complete the agenda, thanks to the administration's own Council Constitution, my refusal to allow the Leader of the Council - not a committee member of course - to question the Southern Water representative towards the end of the meeting, met with a 'toys out of pram' response of disreputable proportions.

Consequently I have been informed by the Leader that questions from me TO THE CABINET will NOT be allowed for five months. Why 5 months, I have no idea, but when did logic come into it ?

There is no provision in the Constitution for questions from non-Committee members to evidence-givers during a Scrutiny Committee; just as there is no provision at Cabinet for non-Cabinet councillors to ask questions as the agenda progresses. The Leader does allow ad hoc questions from people like me at his meeting when it suits him, but not if the direction of the questioning is embarrassing - see late May Cabinet meeting regarding meetings with Schools Minister.

I did not allow the Leader to ask questions tonight because I am the Chair of the Committee and had an agenda to complete in a short time period. If he can't understand that, and now wants to punish me on a tit for tat basis, so be it. At least I have some idea of how to conduct myself at Council meetings.

Apart from that the meeting was reasonably productive. A number of Planning issues were progressed, thanks to the good sense of Cllr Mosdell - yes, I will name him ! Three Cabinet members made valuable contributions to our enquiries - including broad acceptance of our Wightcare report - and another helped kick off our big Budget enquiry. The Southern Water session was informative and useful, before the pram incident.

One thought. If this Committee is supposed to receive support from the Council's Communications operation, as I am told it is, why does that support go to Cabinet members after the meeting and not to the members of the Scrutiny Committee ????????

I sometimes wish I was really naive........

TOO BUSY TO POST

The last week has been very busy, leading to less posts than usual.

I spent the weekend on a Chair of Scrutiny training course at Warwick Univ., which mainly consisted of me arguing with LibDem councillors about the role of an opposition Chair. The course was not very good and took a weekend out of my life. I have significant doubts about the agency that organises all the councillor training.

I have also been involved in the appointment of the new Director of Adult & Community Services, which was concluded last evening. Interesting that one of the candidates spent time reading this blog ! As they say, it is sometimes the only way to find out what is going on.........

Tonight is the Scrutiny Committee, for which I have to do a massive amount of preparation as the agenda is packed with public interest issues........

ANOTHER WORLD ?

This post lifts its head up from parochial matters and contemplates the political party I have been a member of for over 20 years.

The Labour Leader will stand down sometime next year and we will then elect a new Leader by the autumn of 2007. Everyone presumes it will be a Gordon Brown coronation, but in my view that would be entirely wrong.

What must be done is for the party to have a debate about the direction it wants to go after Blair. That is why I am supporting a leadership campaign by John McDonnell MP for when the Prime Minister resigns - see After Blair Link on left.

I do this not because I think he will win, but because I want the party to have a debate - do we want more Blair/Brownism, or do we want to refocus our policies on the hopes of ordinary working people ? Or do we want something that steers a course between the two ?

With David Cameron re-energising his party by blatant opportunism (though no doubt causing heart attacks in the blue rinse brigade) maybe it is time for Labour to spell out some significant differences between us and the Tories ?

John McDonnell wants a leadership debate that is about choices for the party:

• between promoting public services or continued privatisation;
• between free education or trust schools and tuition fees;
• between increasing the state pension and restoring the link with earnings or forcing more people onto the means test;
• between allowing councils to build council houses once again or high rents, escalating housing costs, homelessness and overcrowding;
• between energy from green power sources, conservation, and British clean coal or the costs and risks of nuclear power;
• between promoting civil liberties and trade union rights or reactionary incursions into the right of free speech, assembly and trial;
• between a government committed to peace, withdrawal from Iraq and nuclear disarmament or backing Bush's wars and wasting £24 billion on Trident.

I think that is a debate that Labour must have post-Blair and I am delighted that John McDonnell has put his name forward to ensure that debate.

FULL COUNCIL HELL !

Full Council tonight, which was a form of hell. Two Powerpoint presentations meant curtains had to be closed in the Council Chamber - on one of the hottest evenings of the year. And I was the only male councillor without a tie ! What are they all trying to prove ? I am not being 'disrespectful' by not having a tie on in weather like this....surely ?

Meeting was pretty uneventful. Some argy-bargy over the repeal of the taxi zoning system, which I supported in the interests of customer choice, with the other opposition groups opposing or abstaining. Congratulations to the IW Island Games Assoc. from all, and then a Public Health Report. The latter was then followed by a motion that the Council do all it can to reduce levels of obesity and to encourage healthy eating. I managed to work in a question about muesli and the Council's staff, which drew laughter with its reference to the Leader's most recent attempt at winning friends and influence.

There was a pretty discreditable question to me after my Scrutiny Chair's Report relating to the Labour Group leadership, which I dealt with appropriately. I also thanked the Chair for placing my Report in the Cabinet section of the agenda, and suggested that this was, however, nearly 3 years ahead of the schedule for Labour members to be running the Cabinet !

This was followed by the Leader's Report, where he dealt with a question about current staff morale from an Independent by lambasting Deborah and I for previously talking about low morale, on the basis of some report none of us in opposition have ever seen. After that there were the other Cabinet member reports - with quite a number of placed, soft questions from ruling group backbenchers. I asked a number of questions, but you start to get sick of hearing your own voice.

Finally I have recommenced from today my previous practice of not attending the start of Full Council until after 'Prayers'. I had given up this practice in the last 3 months, but have decided that I will always stay out for the rest of my term. I do not think such an overtly religious and Christian start to Council meetings is either appropriate or very inclusive. In my view religious celebration should be a personal, not a public matter.

SCRUTINY COMMITTEE MOVES UP A GEAR

PRESS RELEASE

After a quiet meeting last month, the IW Council's Scrutiny Committee on Thursday 27 July (6pm, County Hall) will demonstrate it is moving up a gear in terms of holding the Council and most public service providers to account on behalf of the Island people.

The packed agenda for the meeting includes;

• an enquiry into the reason for Southern Water's hosepipe ban, with the water company sending along a senior manager to respond to questions;
• separate, evidence-giving appearances by four of the seven Council Cabinet members - Cllrs Ward, Wood, Cousins and Abrahams - as the Committee progresses two of its current formal enquiries ('planning gains' and 'the delivery and impact of budget efficiencies'), tries to get to the bottom of precisely why a substantial Government housing grant was lost this year, and exactly who is responsible for enforcing on-street parking infringements at present;
• an expected response from the Cabinet member to the Committee's recent Wightcare privatisation enquiry report;
• the conclusion of two earlier enquiries into Development Control processes and reporting.

Cllr Geoff Lumley, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee said, "After the excellent Scrutiny Committee meetings of April and May where we concentrated on the Wightcare enquiry, last month's meeting was relatively quiet. However, the meeting this month has a packed agenda of public interest items, showing that the Scrutiny Committee takes its role very seriously indeed and is pursuing an extensive work programme. We have had better attendances from members of the public than the Cabinet over the first three months I have been the Chair, and I hope that will continue to be the case this month. In the autumn we will be looking at ways and means of improving public engagement with the scrutiny process."

Cllr Lumley concluded, "Scrutiny of local affairs - whether its the Council or other public bodies - is something the Government is very keen on developing. We are likely to see the extension of scrutiny powers in the local government White Paper in the autumn to agencies like the police. If Islanders are not sure what scrutiny is all about, why not come along to one of our meetings to get a flavour of what we are up to ?"

'AIM HIGH' ON WAY OUT ?

Apart from the 'Aim High' dog-leashes all Tory councillors have to wear, you never hear come across this twaddle phrase anywhere these days. Particularly since the new Chief Executive started.......

COUNCIL TORIES - 'NOT A HAPPY SHIP'

This was reported to me by a reliable source recently and confirms everything I have been hearing over the last few weeks. Apparently the Tories' last group meeting was a bit of a battle, with the MP rushed down from Westminster on a Thursday to help mediate.

The Council Leader's propensity for 'favourites' does not go down well in such a large group, especially if you are not one of them !

AUDIT COMMISSION BLAME MANAGERS FOR NHS DEFICITS

As I have been saying it for most of the last year on the Council's Health Scrutiny Commission, I make no apologies for drawing attention to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5165242.stm

Pity that I have been slammed down for suggesting as much

BACK FROM BOURNEMOUTH

Back from the LGA Conference, which was very useful for a new councillor like me. Attended lots of workshops that will hopefully help me make a stronger and better informed contribution as an opposition, but constructive, councillor.

Main drawback was being stupid enough to endure a dull speech by 'Dave' Cameron - Dave the Chameleon indeed ! Of the two Labour Cabinet Ministers who appeared - Ruth Kelly and David Miliband - the latter was as ever frighteningly bright and capable.......

Lots of ward stuff to get on with this weekend; not least of which are the summer public drinking problems at Downside Playing Field. Time for this Tory Council to act, instead of spouting hot air.

NEW CHIEF EXEC ON PAN WALKABOUT

Spent an hour on Friday evening showing the new Chief Executive around Pan ward, though was mainly on the estate. He was very keen to see what all the focus on Pan is about and left I hope with a better understanding of why there is that focus, even though compared to most mainland urban areas the estate is quite delightful. I told him that the putting down of Pan locally is just historic and ignorant snobbery about social housing.

Tomorrow I am off to the Local Government Association conference in Bournemouth for the week, together with the Council Leader and another Cabinet member. Never before will I have spent so much time with so many Conservatives; fortunately the LGA does have a Labour Group !