This evening was the first opportunity that opposition members had to scrutinise and debate the 2014/15 budget. Items potentially up for discussion were the spending plans for waste, refuse collections, highways, footpaths, libraries and parks amoungst other things.
The whole discussion on a budget around half a billion pounds lasted just six minutes. There were no questions raised by the Independent Party on capital programme items due to be financed by borrowing. There were no querying of the of the administrations budget proposals. No alternatives put forward. Nothing. We had one short comment in support of keeping our street lights switched on and investing in LED technology.
In fact there was a longer debate on pubs in the town. You could not make it up. Is this the level of representation that voters expect when they voted Independent, Lib Dem or Labour?
2 comments:
Have you considered that this may be a failure of process?
I should also point out that the majority of members at last night's scrutiny were Conservative. Of course, you may consider that Tories are unwilling or incapable of holding their own administration to account.
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