Last Wednesday was the regular meeting of Bury’s ‘Full Council’, the main meeting of the Council for all 51 councillors.
There was a few changes to the seating arrangements, as two Labour councillors are no longer Labour councillors and are sitting as independents – more information on Cllr Matt Bailey’s blog here.
Residents Petition – Three-Weekly Bin Collections
Well over the 2,500 signatures required from local residents to trigger a special debate in Council had been made on a petition against three-weekly bin collections.
I had been expecting a lively debate on this important issue that is clearly of huge interest to local people. Amazingly, because the member of the public who was down to open the debate wasn’y there at the start of the debate the debate didn’t happen and we just moved on.
Obviously it would be wrong to question the decision of the Mayor on this issue (in Full Council meetings the Mayor is always right….), but it does seem strange to me that this is the procedure – bit of a democratic ‘fail’ given how many people signed the petition.
Changes to Rules
Yet again at this Council meeting I was not allowed to ask a question to the Leader of the Council under the ‘written questions’ section of the agenda. (Because I’m the only Liberal Democrat councillor my questions are put to the bottom of the list, and invariably we run out of time before we get to them.)
The Council did agree a rule change, so three out of every four questions asked to the (Labour) Council Leader will be from other Labour councillors, and only one in four from the main opposition Conservatives. (Lib Dems and independents remain at the end of the list.) I am not sure this is the best form of democratic scrutiny which we need in all forms of local government, whichever party is in charge. Apparently the rules for ‘single’ members like me will be reviewed soon, but very soon we will be half way through the current council year, so I’m not sure what is taking so long!
I did ask two questions in writing (which didn’t get answered verbally), and I’ll be able to report on these when the written answers make it to the Council website – more next week.
Verbal Questions
I did get to ask a verbal question, which I asked about the proposed closure of most Children’s Centres, including one in the heart of Holyrood Ward which I represent (Toodle Hill).
I asked how a ‘targetted service’ using outreach was somehow going to be MORE benficial for less better off families, than having an open access Children’s Centre on their doorsteps. There was a long answer – the Council clearly think it does – but a lot more to find out on this issue and to say during the consultation process.
Motions
Two motions, one from Labour about the underfunding of NHS Bury. I fully support the need for Bury to be fairly funded and we have always consistently agreed to take part in all-party approaches to Government (this Government and the last Labour Government) on underfunding of Bury services.
I wasn’t however prepared to accept the typical ‘Labour’ words about NHS funding. Labour called for more money to be invested in the NHS – fine sentiments, yet their own Party won’t commit to even preserving NHS funding at the current level should they be elected in 2015 (Lib Dems ARE committed to increasing NHS funding by inflation for the whole of the next Parliament).
A second motion from the Conservatives raised the issue of looking for alternative models to deliver Council services. Given the current pressures I was happy to support looking at other models, as all Parties are.
Hope that is helpful, full papers are here: http://councildecisions.bury.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=148&MId=1650&Ver=4