My week ahead, 15 - 20 December 2014

Monday 15 December, 4pm – Culture and Leisure portfolio meeting
7pm – Labour Group

Wednesday 1t December, 20m – Visit to Military Charity at Imperial War Museum

Thursday 18 December, 6pm – Borough Scrutiny meeting

Saturday 20 December, 10am – Labour campaigning in East Ipswich

Last week I mentioned that the meetings I was planning to attend during the week have been poorly supported by the Lib Dems and the Tories in the past. Well, the pattern of non-attendance continued.

The first meeting on Monday was the Culture and Leisure working group – an important meeting as we were discussing the budget but the Lib Dem member failed to turn up or send their apologies but I am sure that will not stop the Lib Dems commenting on the budget in the New Year. At least the Tories did turn up if at times it was embarrassing for them when discussing having to cut spending on items that should in truth be funded by the Tory run County Council.

By Thursday the non - attendance bug had spread as we had our final Housing Panel meetings of the year, the East Panel saw both the Tories and the Lib Dems fail to turn up or tend their apologies and the South West Panel was also devoid of opposition councillors. At least the Tories from the North West did turn up for the panel meeting but it was disappointing that not one opposition councillor was in attendance later in the evening for the 2014 Tenant Awards.

The panel meetings were also the first opportunity for both councillors and tenants to discuss the planned council rents for next year, even know there was a lack of Tory councillors at the panel meetings I am sure it will not stop them criticising us when the subject of council rents comes to full council.

Interesting to see if the Lib Dems turn up for Scrutiny this week!

On a more positive note, it was good to join 6th Formers from Northgate School on Saturday as they planted fruit trees on a piece of land near Sidegate Lane. The pupils with help and funding from the Borough Council and the Area Committee have turned a piece of waste land into a small community garden.

My week ahead, 7 - 12 October 2013

Tuesday 8 October, 5pm - Sidgate School Finance meeting
6pm - Culture and Leisure Working Group

Thursday 10 October, 6pm - Area Committee Chairs meeting at Grafton House

Saturday 12 October, 10am - Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich

We are now back into the full flow of meetings with an extra meeting last week as the North East Area Committee hosted a public meeting about the NHS Trust proposals to develop the St Clement's Hospital site into a housing estate. Over 100 residents attended and the Trust, IBC and councillors were able to answer a number of questions from residents. IBC Officers and councillors will now also be aware of the many concerns residents have when the proposal comes to the Planning Committee in November.

The ability to get this meeting arranged quite quickly was yet one more reason why the Area Committees provide a better service to residents than the previous area forums - I am certain that most Tory councillors are also agreed on this but not many are prepared to say that in public as they keep up a display of opposition to the idea of area committees, how much longer they will keep up this futile battle is anyone's guess as there still seems to be little direction or leadership coming from the Tory group.

This week we start a series of working groups where we look at the budgets and spending plans for next year. We have the Culture Working Group on Tuesday evening. these working groups are all party - so councillors can work together to make sure the best decisions are made for residents in what are difficult times as we face yet again a massive cut in our government grant. Previous years we have seen the opposition contribute in the discussions at the Culture Working group but in other working groups the opposition have not even attended.

When the Tories and Lib Dems were in power, the Labour Group were not asked to contribute even though we were the largest group- but we have always wanted contributions from all three groups, but again the Tory response seems not to be inconsistent, with some councillors willing to join in with meaningful discussions whilst others can't even be bothered to attend the meetings.

We will not know for a couple of weeks what the Tory stance is this year.