Scrutiny meeting

Well I have already blogged on the inquiry I chaired to tackle fuel poverty in our housing - see here. The rest of the meeting had a few other items of interest - in my haste here I can't really do justice...

Photos: Randwick woods look stunning at the moment with all those bluebells

We had two papers re budgets - it was interesting going through them as it is a chance to find out stuff - for example one of the Sustainability Officers posts is still vacant. I have since written to the Chief Exec and Council Leader as this seems crazy short-sightedness when that is the area we need to be developing - indeed the Council has a handful of proposals that need progressing.

The report re the renewables contract that the committee rejected at the last meeting - see here - was finally accepted. It was not regarding the project but the process. It does seem the scrutiny committee was not given clear information - in particular it seems we were told that 'soft marketing' had been undertaken when in fact it was quotations being sought from companies - this is not good for the companies who invest lots of time in a quotation. The issue was complex and I wont try to do it justice here, suffice to say I hope that lessons have been learnt - certainly a number of recommendations have been made...

We also had reports re parking enforcement, asbos and the corporate strategy but I've run out of time to write more now - several phone calls interrupting the writing of this! The meeting should be on webcast for those keen to see it!