(Very) Full Council meeting

Full Council meeting today, as just mentioned, and it went on until 8pm ... yes 8pm, from a 10am start.

Mercifully, there wasn't 10-hours of debate ... due to two recess periods of around an hour each ... but still a pretty full day clearly!

As expected, the most lengthy debate was on the financial situation of the Local Authority; followed by a fairly protracted debate on educational issues and how best to approach the upcoming school rationalisation programme, which I alluded to earlier also.

I thought I got a sense, by the end of a very long meeting, that the new Administration were just (maybe) beginning to realise that we are serious in our offer/s of constructive (critical when needed, yes) assistance to tackle some of the big city issues over the forthcoming 4-years.

I hope the brief July recess gives some space for a bit more reflection by all on the new situation - no one has a majority; two parties make up half (exactly) of the Council; they've formed an Administration; they'll get precious little achieved though if they don't cooperate with others - some of the tasks are so challenging that they WILL need some opposition votes on occasion ... I guarantee it.

Maybe, just maybe, there's hope for a new politics yet??