I have again come to full Council, this time it was for the presentation to former members which obviously includes me.
The meeting was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits after my election defeat, I am fairly sure that the debates lasted for several hours, although in truth it was under two hours. The debate was at one point described as simply a power struggle, a charge that Cllr Lamb (Northgate) stated he found that offensive, I am afraid to say however that from where I sat at the back this is exactly how it seemed. The same points were raised again and again obstinately regardless of the replies that were given.
Highlight of the meeting for me however, and accept this is politically biased, the Labour group asked, through Cllr Jones (Bewbush) why there was no Labour representation on the Joint Scrutiny steering group, it was pointed out that in fact this was because they were only 5% of councillors in West Sussex. A cheap shot but in a very drawn out meeting you need all the entertainment you can get.
Possibly the best thing in the meeting is that as I am no longer a councillor I could go home, so I have to admit, I didn't make the end of the meeting.
That was me, but it wasn't a cheap shot. It was a statement of fact in order to set the context of how ridiculus they were being. I did say "less than 5%". They have 17 councillors out of some 370 across West Sussex and yet were complaining they would not be represented on a County-wide body of 13 councillors.
ReplyDeleteIt was a dire meeting with Labour councillors argueing the toss over the smallest procedures which some of them didn't appear to understand.
To show how unstrategic they were, Ian Irving was flagging up several minor items for debate, while none of them flagged-up the budget strategy which is of huge significance. Instead, Ian Irving felt it worthwhile to debate why Cllr David Shreeves had been refered to David Shreeves (which was a minor typo) in a report, rather than Cllr Shreeves.
Their new and inexperienced councillors were trying to make a name for themselves. They succeeded, but not in the way I think they were hoping to.
I am wondering whether we should introduce web-casting of these meetings. My instints say no because of the expense and the lack of public interest, but part of me thinks the people of Crawley ought to see how some councillors conduct themselves.
It does appear that some of the councillors believe their role is simply to attack the administration, instead of actually adding value for the residents of Crawley.
ReplyDeleteIf I was feeling uncharitable I would say that it shows a party without any alternatives, They are desperate to make a point but don't have one and so need to grab onto whatever they can.