Scrutiny update

At Scrutiny on Thursday the agenda was decidedly short and with little content (although we were still there from 6 to just after 9pm)....indeed a fair few councillors were absent completely....

The County Community Safety panel looks set to go completely as the moves towards Police and Crime Commissioners so there was no proper update on that. We did get a detailed update re the Health, Community and Care Scrutiny Committee and much is going on - we hope to get the Chief Exec to the next Scrutiny. Please don't forget to vote for option one if you haven't already - see here. We must keep the NHS out of private hands - although it seems even with a massive vote in favour of Option One they are not obliged to have to go down that route.....more on all this soon.

Meanwhile the canal was also on the agenda...we had updates on the various developments but key of course is the £10m shortfall. It seems many are now leaning towards seeing if it is poss to use the remaining money to go other way ie not Brimscombe. This is not decided but all seemed to support this lower risk option....this is a great shame indeed...the project has been managed well and I have been totally impressed by all the volunteers work and serious engineering challenges being got over....this move, if it goes ahead, means Brimscombe Port developments are effectively put on hold as time and energy is used to develop the canal further West.....no doubt more on all this soon too...See webcast: http://www.strouddc.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/73426