I was initially pleased that it was held in Macclesfield, especially as the weather looked like it might turn increasingly inclement and I didn't relish the idea of getting stuck in Crewe in the snow.
But the Town Hall assembly rooms are a funny place. First of all it was freezing cold. Well...perhaps not quite freezing, but it can't of been much about 15 degrees and my hands didn't take long to go numb. Many members weren't happy about the lack of space (although oddly I had plenty - must be my aftershave, etc...) and then there's the sodium lighting that gives everything an odd orange tint. Everything, that is, apart from stuff that's orange/red which seem to become white. For example, the copper-top hair of Rhiannon from the Macclesfield express looked positively blonde.
I hope that paints the picture. It's like spending the meeting wearing orange safety specs. It's a very surreal experience.
Speaking of the press table, it was quite well populated for a change. This was good news, although all of them yawned a lot. And I don't blame them, as some elements of the meeting were rather tedious.
One of the Councillors got lost in the agenda (again) and attempted to tell the Mayor we were debating the wrong item. Similar confusion was bestowed upon the same Councillor last time around so it's turning into a theme.
Then there were the endless questions. 16 were listed, although Cllr Hardy's had 6 points so I reckon it was 21 questions in all. Now I've got no problems with asking questions. I do it to officers and cabinet members on an almost hourly basis. That's what we're supposed to do.
But I think that questions at full council should be either:
a) Something of the upmost importance and needs to be bought to the attention of everyone
or
b) Be a question which has received no, or an inadequate response, from the normal channels.
That's not what they're being used for. They're being used by Councillors, who I suspect have done nothing useful since the last meeting, to make themselves look like they're diligent and hard working.
The culprit here really is Cllr Flude. She has abused the question facility in the most grotesque fashion. She submitted 9 to this meeting, many with several sections, and none as far as I could see were important or had been refused through other channels.
Let's take a look at how much of a waste of time some of these were:
"Will the Executive Member confirm that the budget for this department is 1.45 Million, with an extra 300k from transitional costs."Blimey....it's in the budget book. Look it up. Don't waste the officers, the cabinet, and the council's time on something you can't be bothered to do.
"The recent LAA Performance Indicators for Cheshire East indicate that our Library service has a 76% public satisfaction level well above the nation avearge of 69%. Will this Council congratulate the staff in our libraries for their excellent performance?"Excellent news, I agree. But the cabinet member isn't going to say no, are they?
This question was also a good example of the other side of the problem - the lengthy answers that cabinet members feel they have to give when prodded on a given subject. We got a ten minute diatribe on the improvements still to come, which are also good news. But in my view the question should have been dispatched in an appropriate fashion, which would have meant a simple "Yes".
