ANOTHER TORY PROMISE BROKEN

After much 'What we did on our US holidays' preamble, last night's Full Council saw another Tory promise broken as they steered through a Boundary Review submission for a reduction in councillors by one-sixth. Their manifesto said they would seek a reduction by one-third, or down to 32. Island Labour has already made a submission to the Review for a reduction to 33, which apart from anything else would save the taxpayer well over £100k in allowances each year.

I expressed concern at the understated population projections for Pan in the Council submission, which claim there will only be 116 extra adults living in the new Pan development by December 2011? A clear case of gerry-mandering. I had made representations to the Council about this beforehand, have been ignored, and have now made a complaint to the Boundary Committee.

All the Tories voted in favour of breaking their promise in the Council submission, Labour voted against, and the three LibDems had a variety of reasons for doing so - some want more, some less - but they also all voted against.

We had the latest visit by taxi proprietors, unhappy at the quality of consultation over de-regulation. Instinctively I support de-regulation, but I expressed concern about their level of unhappiness. On a named vote the Tories all voted (bar the two JPs) to de-regulate with most opposition members abstaining.

Under the Reports section of the agenda I made a fuss about the censoring of my Report from Scrutiny for being too political, but got nowhere. As I had already circulated the Report myself to all Members and the media I wasn't too fussed.

The meeting eventually closed after nearly 3 hours without any further attacks on my atheism. But then the Council Leader did appear to be under sedation all night.

Tonight - Scrutiny Committee, where I will have an announcment to make towards the end of the meeting.................