Planning On Something

After a quiet month for me in terms of attending Council meetings, I should be able to make 5 meetings this time round, so hopefully the coming few weeks will make up for what has been a bit of a layabout last month.

Overview and Scrutiny this Tuesday with lots of Plans being reviewed. Dont forget readers, there has been a change to the membership numbers with the Conservatives holding 7 seats, Labour 6 and Tom King as Independent Chair. Lots of links on the Council page for this meeting, so try this link and read those two pdfs instead.

Draft Corporate Plan comes up after a speech by Clive Hart on "The Future Cabinet Priorities in relation to Key Decisions in the Forward Plan". As we know from his Braveheart moment in January, he and Labour don't do the "Big Society game". Curious because Priority 3 from the Draft Corporate Plan is about voluntary and community organisations and develops aspects of the Big Society even if it doesnt call it that. This idea also features in the Kent Forum's "Vision for Kent" as Ambition 3.  The Draft Corporate Plan comes before Cabinet on the 29th before going to Full Council.

There's also a report on "Urgent Decisions". You might remember this was opted over a Working Group, much to my relief. As I said back then, there does need to be some thought into this, so its a fair cop. The report is not available at time of blogging. If it appears, Ill stick the link up, though its likely to be too late for the meeting.

We have a crime section in this meeting with the Strategic Assessment (interesting reading) and Safety Plan for the coming year. Attached to this is a report by the Crime Reduction Working Party. 

With the Parking Review, I would really like to hear more about the discussion and possible further changes to the parking scheme for future years in Minnis Bay, Joss Bay, Westgate and Margate Old Town. Readers, got any ideas?

To finish, again I want to make the point, all meetings should be recorded for the public to access. Agendas like the one above are really important with Thanet-wide implications and the public should be hearing about it in full. I know theres a webcast pilot taking place but for me, its not worth the expense, providing a substandard service. Other Councils record  all their meetings through a relatively cheap and user-friendly mp3 system. OK, you lose the video, but given the quality of that at the moment, its not much of a loss...