Full Council

Last Tuesday evening saw a meeting of the full council, which was a little more lively than the 'post' summer break meeting has been.

Once the usual formalities had been dealt with the meeting moved on to considering two question from the leader of the Lib Dems group on the council, one based on recent exam results (apparently raised because of a less than complementary remark about the successes of High Peak school kids by the Deputy Mayor on High Peak Radio) the other on encouraging recycling in school.

The business then moved on to consider two recommendations from the executive one on the capital strategy which despite containing some goods bit locally the Labour Group was unable to support. Unsurprisingly however the Lib Dems and Independents of the former Coalition had no problems supporting.

The asset management plan for the next few years was then considered and again the Labour Group along with Linda Leather of the Lib Dems were unable to support the plans.

During both of the items a number of members asked questions on the items which the Council's new executive were either unwilling or unable to answer claiming a lack of prior notice despite in the case of a question from Cllr Jacqui Wilkinson on the Market Hall in Glossop been asked at a previous meeting, now whilst detailed answer's can't be expected with out prior notice there be at least a willingness to debate the issue's that they are putting forward.

A procedural issue on substitutes then followed with the rules apparently being changed by the controlling Conservative group without the rest of us been informed.

The meeting then considered the first of two motions submitted. The first was on the forthcoming congestion charge in Manchester and in making sure that the Council gets into early discussions with the GMPTE and others to get the best deal for local residents and ensure that the improvements are put in place before the charges kick in. After a good debate and a quick amendment almost all the members of the council were able to give it their support.

The final item was a motion regarding a decision by the Controlling group to put a none Councillor as a Councillor on to the board of High Peak Community Housing, a lively debate with one or two members getting perhaps a little to excited before the matter was referred to the audit and regulatory committee for further consideration.

All in all an interesting evening, even including some bits of humour particularly when the Mayor called me to speak as "Cllr Mckeown Junior" which caused laughter all round the council chamber.