October meeting of Copeland Council
Copeland Council met at 5pm this evening.
As is growing depressingly familiar, there was the usual splurge of questions from Labour councillors inviting Labour executive members to complain about how terrible the cuts are. The fact that these cuts would not be necessary had not the Labour government presided over a gigantic government deficit, doubled the national debt, and left behind a situation where the government was spending four pounds for every three coming in was, for some reason, never mentioned by any of the Labour speakers.
One particular own goal was scored by the Labour councillor who asked for an impact assessment in Copeland of the job losses at Sellafield. These may indeed be serious, unless the coalition government changes the policies of its' Labour predecessor. But as I pointed out, the coalition has not changed government policy in this area. The policies and budgets which have put jobs at Sellafield at risk were put in place by Labour: indeed, the first warning of them was given BEFORE the election, while Labour was still in power, by the very union whose convenor was also the election agent to Copeland's Labour candidate.
And the secretary of state who put in place the policies which are threatening job losses at Sellafield is now the Leader of the Labour party - Ed Miliband.
Other business of the evening included
* A series of prize presentations to Copeland in Bloom
* Approval of the council's Treasury Management policy
* An outline for the new Strategic Partnership
* Approval of the updated Licensing policy. (I took the opportunity to ask that the council should encourage all licencees to join Pubwatch.)
* Approval of a new schedule of Building Control Fees
* My Bransty colleague Allan Mossop asked about the fact that the plans for the new Tesco store and Bus/Rail interchange no longer include a roundabout. Allan argued that not including such a roundabout is a mistake. (I agree with him: this would be a tragic lost opportunity.
As is growing depressingly familiar, there was the usual splurge of questions from Labour councillors inviting Labour executive members to complain about how terrible the cuts are. The fact that these cuts would not be necessary had not the Labour government presided over a gigantic government deficit, doubled the national debt, and left behind a situation where the government was spending four pounds for every three coming in was, for some reason, never mentioned by any of the Labour speakers.
One particular own goal was scored by the Labour councillor who asked for an impact assessment in Copeland of the job losses at Sellafield. These may indeed be serious, unless the coalition government changes the policies of its' Labour predecessor. But as I pointed out, the coalition has not changed government policy in this area. The policies and budgets which have put jobs at Sellafield at risk were put in place by Labour: indeed, the first warning of them was given BEFORE the election, while Labour was still in power, by the very union whose convenor was also the election agent to Copeland's Labour candidate.
And the secretary of state who put in place the policies which are threatening job losses at Sellafield is now the Leader of the Labour party - Ed Miliband.
Other business of the evening included
* A series of prize presentations to Copeland in Bloom
* Approval of the council's Treasury Management policy
* An outline for the new Strategic Partnership
* Approval of the updated Licensing policy. (I took the opportunity to ask that the council should encourage all licencees to join Pubwatch.)
* Approval of a new schedule of Building Control Fees
* My Bransty colleague Allan Mossop asked about the fact that the plans for the new Tesco store and Bus/Rail interchange no longer include a roundabout. Allan argued that not including such a roundabout is a mistake. (I agree with him: this would be a tragic lost opportunity.
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