County Council Meeting

Given that this was the final County Council meeting before the election I expected a bit of a barnstormer. Actually the Liberal Democrats were somewhat subdued. As usual, at the beginning of the meeting the awards the Council has been won were announced, except the list this month was the longest I can remember.

As ever, the Liberal Democrats failed to acknowledge that we had been successful. You would have thought it would be a nice touch for their Leader at some point to congratulate the staff who had been involved - it would be easy to fit in at the introduction to his first comment - but the Lib Dems in the County do their best to deny any recognition of success. Further reiterated when, once again, their Leader, David Jenkins, tried to deny that we have been recognised as the most improved County Council in the country. I really do struggle with this; denying and talking down success is surely the most obvious sign that you are not fit to run a Council.

For me,the most important part to the Council meeting was the agreement of the Big Plan 2 and the Children's Workforce Strategy. These are crucial documents that set out the plans for children's services across the County. There was one snide and unhelpful remark that the documents were so good that the Liberal Democrats could have written it (is there really a need for that?), but apart from that a number of constructive and supportive comments were made and they were voted through with unanimous support and I am grateful for that support - it reflects the good work that was done in preparation.

Overall, the meeting was a reflection of the last four years, the Lib Dems struggled to make an impact and spent as much time as possible talking down success.