SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

As you can probably tell I'm not sure I'm so enthusiastic blogging these days, but as it was Full Council tonight I suppose there is a public service element of what I write......

After the excitement of closing down all our schools down last month the Tories had the more usual thin agenda for tonight - apart from my motion seeking that the Council support the '10:10' carbon emissions reduction campaign. Sadly they did their usual - brought forward an amendment which sought to reduce emissions by just 4% in 2010. I rejected that, but the amendment was approved by 20 votes (all Tories) to 11, with 3 abstentions. The Tory Whip had done his job again.

Talking of whips I am told by a good source that Tory Group standing orders do not allow individual Tory councillors to speak on matters without the permission of the Whip. That would explain why so few Tory councillors make a contribution at Full Council, with no less than three never having opened their mouths in a debate. I bet they were all going to be 'strong voices' for their communities at the last election......

We then had to approve the membership of the new Ethical Standards Committee - our police force. As all the proposed members were only interviewed by councillors and senior officers I opposed - on my lonesome - as I don't approve of councillors choosing their judge and jury. Let the people decide !

After that it was questions to Cabinet members, with the Liberal group leader asking the Council Leader if I had now been appointed as 'Government Door Opener' after I accompanied the Tories to the meeting with Ed Miliband and they weren't invited. He was accusing me of being in a pact with the Tories over the same issue a couple of weeks ago - which shows just how out of touch the local Liberals were after their crushing defeat in 2005. Without Deborah and I there would have been no opposition whatsoever prior to last June and I still punch at least equal the weight of their five strong group on my own.

In my own question to the Leader I complained how many decisions were not taken by Full Council, but by Cabinet, and he committed to reviewing the Forward Plan for such decisions without making any promises.

At the end when the Liberal group leader was told foolishly by the Children Services Cabinet member to trust her judgement about progress in this area - a 3 star service in 2005, a 2 star service every year since - I asked if this meant that she thought we should listen to her rather than independent outside bodies like Ofsted ? Of course she couldn't confirm that, but hopefully it will stop us being patronised in the future.

All over by 8.20pm and an early return home.

ED MILIBAND MEETING VERY POSITIVE

IW meeting with the Sec. of State for Energy & Climate Change yesterday went well. He was clearly keen to get alternative green jobs into the IW asap, after I made yet another plea for positive Govt. action for the IW's social and economic regeneration post-Vestas.

Development of tidal energy in the Solent, and a scheme for 'rotawave' technology, potentially delivering at least 300 Island jobs, will be subject to further urgent Govt. expert investigation before support grants are made available. He will also look into Govt. support to upgrade some of the available wharfage on the Medina river, which is integral to much of the renewables agenda.

He was quizzical about the Island's absence of any onshore windfarm and stressed this had been a real niggle for Vestas when they decided to shut down blade production.

He wants to be kept in the picture about a possible offshore blade production that has recently come into the picture, with the potential for 1000 jobs.

Overall he was very supportive and he thanked me afterwards for keeping him well advised on the post Vestas situation.

Finally, contrary to the CP's hysterical headline today the decision to insist on an environmental impact assessment for the Ventnor Golf Club wind turbine application was NOT made by him, but by some official at GOSE. When he was told of this yesterday he was aghast and will be looking into it urgently. Good journalism might have checked with his office before condemning him. However, that would require balance.......

GOVERNMENT MINISTER IN PAN, AGAIN

Since last week's schools decisions, I have been entirely focused on the Pan development planning application, which was at last lodged on 25 September. This is the biggest planning application on the Island in a generation - over 850 homes in the next 10-15 years - and if you didn't realise how important it was to the Council beforehand you certainly would if you saw the staggering pile of documents !

Anyway my work is now cut out advising local residents who might have comments or objections to make as the Council hurries headlong through what would be a record-breaking 8 week decision-making. The IWC Planning Committee is likely to consider the application in late November/early December.

Today government minister Jonathan Shaw MP, Minister for the South East (pictured with me), was on the Island and he popped over to Pan for a briefing on the development he was last briefed about in May last year. He later told me he was surprised that a brick still hadn't been laid, but he was delighted that we may now be getting a little closer to providing the much-needed 250+ affordable homes for Island families.

It was also very interesting how keen two Tory cabinet councillors were to meet a real government minister.......... I suppose after the Shadow Chancellor yesterday announced to the Tory Conference how if they ever get elected ordinary people would be paying pretty exclusively for the bank bailout, they have realised that the prospect of a Tory government minister visiting the Island has edged a little further away than it was beforehand........

MORE ON THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH

Last night saw the Full Council make individual decisions regarding the futures of all bar four Island schools. 65 separate decisions in total and it took just over 6 hours, finishing just after midnight this morning.......

Of the 65 decisions we had recorded 'named votes' at my initiation on the 10 most significant decisions . These were the competition awards for the five new secondary schools, the closure of Chale and the 3 Ventnor primary schools, and the creation of a joint-faith Ventnor super primary.

Voting on the night can be summarised as follows:

Middle Schools closures confirmed - generally Cllrs Welsford, Joyce, Stephens, Downer, Churchman, Bacon (all independent) and myself always against, with the Tories, LibDems and Cllrs Fuller, Humby and Dyer (independents) always in favour;

High Schools closures confirmed - generally Cllrs Welsford, Joyce and myself always against, with the Tories, LibDems and Fuller, Humby and Dyer (independents) always in favour;

Primary School enlargements to 4-11 confirmed - only Welsford and Joyce against them all, with myself abstaining on the vast majority - as these in the main were a fait accompli given the earlier votes;

Primary School closures - the three Ventnor ones confirmed with 10 votes against (independents and me) and the Ventnor super-primary approved, and the Chale one deferred for 2 months to give them one last chance to seek federation;

Competition awards - unanimous that the local Medina Innovation Trust should run the Carisbrooke and Medina/Fairlee secondary schools, and that the Cowes Partnership Pathfinder Trust should run the Cowes secondary school. For Ryde and Sandown secondaries I proposed that the local East Wight Educational Trust should be awarded the contract, as opposed to them becoming unaccountable Academies run from Essex (subject to funding). The Ryde one was lost with just 5 votes in favour - me and the 4 LibDems still present (Barry, Howe, Knowles and Richards). On the Sandown one I got just 4 votes as another LibDem had gone home. At least I tried and the 'names' of those who voted for the Academies are in the Minutes for posterity.

The Council then voted an additional £400k for a new primary school transport system - to be funded from savings at County Hall....jobs?

So seven years after the LibDems initiated school reorganisation we are just one year away from it commencing; after the 2007 Tory U-turn to beat all u-turns having being elected in 2005 to retain the 3-tier system.

What's the betting there will be more obstacles on the road to the new secondary schools being established in September 2011 ?