September Full Council

 SEPTEMBER FULL COUNCIL

This was our first meeting back in County Hall, but we still are not back into the chamber itself - and so despite the best efforts of the officers we councillors were all seated in serried ranks and can't really look at each other. But that didn't really stop issues arising, brought up by us:

1. We voted against the approval of the minutes as they don't currently record the questions, interventions nor participation of councillors - only cabinet members. Despite there being Verbatim minutes it was made clear to me that these don't count.  I will pursue this as it means that our work in Council is often unrecorded.
2. At the last meeting it was revealed by a member of the public that Tory Cllr Stuart Rose is a climate change denier.  This was not really contested by the Tory Leader, but he urged us, if we cared about such things, to ask councillors individually. I asked Cllr Lewis what progress he had made speaking to his group about whether they believed the science - he didn't really answer at all - but the minutes record Cllr Rose as being anti-vaccination... this is an issue that won't go away and Cllr Rose will be a problem for the Tories going forwards.
3. When it came to the questions you can ask the Cabinet we used all of our questions to raise issues relating to transport and highways as that is what has dominated our casework. Despite the questions being in advance, on virtually all issues Cllr Athwal said that he would supply a written answer. Despite saying this before, he has not and so I challenged this and the chair has said that these answers should be part of the minutes and up to now they have not been supplied. This will roll on I suspect but we don't intend to allow the Tories to get away with no answer and will pursue this.
4. The Council noted the appointment of a new Director of Children's Services and Ed took the chance again to raise the issue of Looked After Children. We were assured that this issue had been considered, but I will raise it again in person with the new appointee. It fair to say that the issue of 1,000 children for whom the County Council is the legal guardian is an issue that sits heavily on my mind and that I believe we should take very seriously,
5. We were asked to authorise the money and process for a new Chief Executive. The Tories expressed regret at the money and size of salary, Labour condemned it as too much at this time - yet when it came to the vote Tories voted it through, Labour abstained and we were the only ones to actually vote against it.
6. A motion was brought forwards on banning live animals as prizes where it takes place on Council land and asking the Government to ban this all together. Ed moved a drafting amended asking for this ban to be communications to all local authorities in Derbyshire, and after some considerable hesitation and at the risk of named vote, the Tories eventually agreed to include this sensible adjustment in the motion. It was a small thing, but important and we won the point.
7. The motion on WASPI women's pensions was brought forwards by the Labour Group, and despite being fairly moderate and sensible, it was amended into being fairly toothless by the Tories and passed as a motion that noted the problem of pension unfairness, but did little.  This is a dreadful reflection of the powers of the majority group in over-riding sensible debate and discusssion.

FIRE STANDARDS IN SCHOOLS

Thanks to Cllr Ruth Skelton, LD Councillor within the City of Derby, Ed has been able to raise the issue of fire safety standards in school with the Education Cabinet Member.  In particular ensuring that the County stands by the request of Derbyshire Fire Brigade to have sprinklers in all schools and to implement higher standards that the Government are permitting. We will Report back on progress with this issue.

That's it for now folks...

Ed Fordham, Liberal Democrat Group Leader on Derbyshire County Council