Yesterday was the full Council meeting to discuss the budget. The meeting is dedicated to the budget and nothing else although the Lord Mayor does allow some leeway.
Once again the Labour Group failed to present an alternative budget. This is their chance to say what they would do differently to the partnership but once again they failed in their responsibility to the electorate. Instead they moved an amendment asking for the budget to be delayed so that the Co-Ordinating Committee could have a look at it line by line. As the budget has to be signed off very shortly this would have been extremely difficult for a committee that meets once a month and usually has a full agenda. This was merely a device for the Labour Group to say they had tried to do something.
Sir Albert Bore started by saying that Mike Whitby had said in his speech that there would be no compulsory redundancies. This was repeated by at least 5 more of the comrades and in his closing speech Mike accused a Labour member of lying on this point. What Mike actually said was that every effort would be made to avoid CR through natural wastage, not filling vacancies and moving people into other jobs. There is an annual turnover of about 4,000 employees per year and there must be scope for some people to retrain etc.Last year we lost about 1500 full and temporary jobs with very few CRs. However, try as we might, there could be no guarantee that there would be no CR.
This is a typical trick that the comrades use. They say someone has said something and then accuse them of breaking their word later.
Ken made a good speech as the Deputy Chairman of the Housing & Constituencies Overview & Scrutiny Committee whilst Keith presented 2 petitions on behalf of St. James School & Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church parishioners calling for yellow lines on the junctions of Leach Green Lane.
Some of you will know that we are wary of what we put on this blog as the opposition keep a close eye on Conservative blogs to find out what is happening. One trick is to see an issue on a blog, get a few of their cronies to sign a petition and when the issue is dealt with claim credit for getting action.
Sue had a difficult day as she has an advice centre at FrankleyPlus Children's Centre on the last Tuesday of the month. This meant being at the Council Meeting at the start, going to Frankley and coming back for the rest of the meeting. It was a good job she did as 3 people turned up and Sue would not have wanted to let them down. This meant Sue had to get permission from the Chief Whip to do this and managed to get back for 4pm.
There was supposed to be a "Noisy" demonstration in Victoria Square during the meeting but not a sound was heard. Cllr Deirdre Alden took a look and counted about 100 people out there. On the BBC Midlands new this morning they showed a very tight shot looking packed with people but when they showed an aerial shot (very briefly mind, don't blink) there was less a crowd, more a group.
By the way, if you want to help out with election expenses, when you visit this site please click on the adverts at the top of the page. This pays small amounts of money which goes into our Election Account. Labour trolls are excused.
Many Thanks.
