Full Council meeting last night

Full Council last night - see it on webcast if you dare - while there were some interesting and important questions and issues raised there was also a lot of less than interesting stuff - one of the problems is that many of us if will have been to Scrutiny and Cabinet meetings and read the Council papers so for us we will be hearing it for the third time and already read it in the papers.

Photo: 6.00pm Snack in pre-Council meeting: all the political parties have their own meetings before full Council: a chance to discuss the agenda -many councillors come straight from work so sandwiches are provided.

Anyhow below is the agenda with a few quick comments - the full reports are available on the Council website...

1. Apologies (00:03:11)
2. Declarations of Interest (00:03:34)
3. Minutes - 17 May 2007 (00:04:51) - a contentious point arose as a large part of a discussion was not included
4. Announcements (00:11:35) - none!
5. Public Question Time (00:11:45) - 3 questions on Aston Down and why enforcement procedures on the businesses there is not happening quicker.
6. Annual Report of the Standards Committee (00:15:22) - a two page statement read out
7. Appointments to Committees for 2007/08 (00:23:27) - I nominated Cllr Martin Whiteside for the vacant post of Vice-Chair of one of the Scrutiny committees - it was accepted so Greens now hold both Vice-Chairs of those committees.
8. Cabinet Recommendations to Council (from 31 May 2007 meeting) (00:25:18) - there was a collection of these incl the Best Value Performance Plan (indicators on how well the Council is doing), Webcasting, meetings and whether that should continue (I think it was unanimous to continue), a Conservation Statement re Bisley, the Play Strategy and proposals to enforce cleaner neighbourhoods.
9. Statement of Accounts (01:22:56) - lots of questions and a comment from one councillor that was verging on the unreasonable re a question asked - it is always tricky to see where it is humour and where it is just plain wrong.
10. District Ward Boundary Review (01:58:08) - this is the proposal for Crystal Fountain to become part of Nailsworth ward - a dogs dinner has been made of this - the Electoral Commission took 20 or 22 months to respond to the Councils 2004 request then a consultation found both Parishes in favour of moving to Nailsworth but 36 signatures representing 29 properties (ie virtually all) wanted to remain in Woodchester Parish - I say why do a consultation if you are going to ignore the results - anyhow the Council then voted for no action - in the meantime apparently many of those properties now want to be in Nailsworth. Anyhow to cut this short the Council voted to move the boundary so they are in Nailsworth.
11. Gambling Act 2005 - Fee Setting (02:17:21)
12. Civic Timetable 2008-09 (02:20:26)
13. Matters for Information (02:29:50)
14. Members' Questions (02:30:09) - none
15. Local Government Act 2000 - Exclusion of the Public (02:30:12)

Also on the webcast if you do go and look is the Council’s May Cabinet meeting with the World-renowned American ecology journalist Professor Richard Heinberg. See Professor Heinberg’s presentation on Peak Oil theory by going here and clicking on the meeting at 7pm on Thursday, 31 May 2007. Now that makes for interesting listening if you haven't listened to him before when he came to Stroud or elsewhere on the web.