The
public gallery was full for this council meeting
with people angry at the closure of community halls. Watch the
meeting on the webcast.
Cllr Mohammed Pervez (0:14:18) began with an announcement of more cuts
to come, another £50 million over 2 years, no surprise there then.
He only spoke out about the speed of the cuts though, typical Labour.
City Independent Cllr Dave Conway (0:25:49) pointed out that the Labour
council leaders can't blame government for borrowing £40 million to
pay £50 million back in the wasteful move of the civic centre to
Hanley and also that the Labour council leaders only kept children's
centres to avoid the government claw back and would have closed them otherwise. Cllr Conway said he expected to see their spin in 'Our
City' magazine, he accused them of mismanagement and asked them to resign.
Conservative Cllr Abi Brown (0:30:15) accused Labour of preventing
regeneration in the Potteries Shopping Centre and having empty
buildings not for sale whilst selling buildings people want to keep.
Lord Mayor Terry Crowe (0:31:00) announced that the next meeting has
been moved from 6th to 20th December. I wonder
what they are trying play down by having a meeting when many people
are distracted by arrangements for Christmas with their families? Or
am I being too suspicious?
Petition
There
was just one petition, Neil
Hawkins
asked the council to revisit their plans for community hall closures
and accused the council of being negligent. I mentioned in my blog
on the 5/7/12 council meeting that Cllr Ruth Rosenau had
indicated most or all would likely be closed soon.
The
'usual' procedure followed; City Independent Cllr Randy Conteh
(0:38:49) moved a motion to refer the issue to the City Renewal Overview and Scrutiny Committee (the point of this is it would allow the lead
petitioner and councillors to discuss things in detail). Conservative
Cllr Jack Brereton (0:40:06) seconded it. Then the councillors had a
go at each other and inevitably the Labour majority voted the motion
down.
Public Questions
There
were 7 public
questions including
one from Angela Maxfield on criteria for schools admission, which is a particular interest of mine. There were 3 supplementary questions.
Mike
Barnes,
question 3, had asked about information passed to councillors
following a report finding the council
"failing
in its statutory duty to ensure an appropriate
level of preparedness"
in
the case of an emergency such as rioting. Cllr Olwen Hamer
had detailed which committees and councillors this had gone to
including the cabinet member for transformation. Mike
(1:26:49) asked, given that the report stated "the
City Council is no longer prepared to be able to
continue to deliver all of its critical services in the event of an
incident", but Cllr Paul Shotton had dismissed disclosure of the report as
administrative, who is misleading the public? Cllr
Hamer
(1:27:57) responded that nobody was, improvements have been made and
Mike has been sent the report.
Gabrielle
Hoban,
question 6, had asked what the point is of asking supplementary
questions in public when responses are not made in public. Cllr Mohammed Pervez
had said if a detailed response is required a written response after
the meeting may be better. Gabrielle
(1:29:34) asked why she is still waiting for responses to two
questions raised in 2011! Good question. I'm no fan of our council
leader but his response was correct this time; Cllr
Pervez
(1:30:11) apologised and said if the questions are forwarded to him
he will provide answers. I hope, despite past performance not boding
well, that Gabrielle does indeed receive her answers.
Mike
Barnes, question 7, had followed up an announcement of £500,000
of tax payer's money to improve swimming facilities at Dimensions, by
asking about progress. The answer from Cllr Mark Meredith had
been rather noncommital and said whilst a new 25m pool at Dimensions
is desirable, available funding is not enough. So, another example of
highly spun council announcements with little substance then. Mike
(1:30:34) said some buildings had been redacted on a list of
buildings to be sold to help fund the transfer of the civic centre to
Hanley and asked if Dimensions was one of them. I could see the
answer coming; Cllr Meredith (1:31:34) said that as information was
redacted he can't answer the question. So much for an open and
transparent council then.
