First meeting of 2010 for the Full Council last night.
Main issue was the independent remuneration panel's Member Allowances recommendations for the duration of this Council. In line with my proposal last June at the start of this Council, the leadership recommended complete acceptance of the recommendations, which maintained the basic allowance at its current level and tinkered with special responsibility allowances - some gaining, some losing. I expressed my support for that acceptance.
The 'Independent' group proposed an amendment that further reduced some of the responsibility allowances and did not backdate the changes to last June. This was lost with the Tories, me and 4 Independents against, the other Independents in favour, and the Liberals abstaining. I opposed as I do not think councillors should do anything but accept the independent panel recommendations. Complete acceptance was then agreed with the Tories, me and a few Independents in favour, one Independent against, and a few Independents and the Liberals abstaining. From beginning to end we received no indication of what the Liberals currently think about independently determined allowances.......
The meeting then overwhelmingly agreed my motion that Cabinet member written reports be made available 24 hours ahead of Full Council to improve accountability and scrutiny. The Liberals abstained again..........
Cllr Jonathon Bacon (Independent) was then overwhelmingly elected as the latest Scrutiny Committee chair. Wonder how long he will last ? The Liberals abstained yet again.......
Meeting concluded with the usual questions of Cabinet members and I secured a promise of a full written report on how the Council thinks it can secure a new developer for the Pan development without £11m government 'kickstart' funding, when the previous agreed developer pulled out one year ago due to the absence of such infrastructure funding.
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