Full Council meeting ...

Full Council meeting went on to 9pm this evening ... yes, 11 hours :-((

Over 20 organisations were up to take part in one deputation or another - just shows you how many groups were being specifically affected by the proposed budget cuts - and it has to be said that all spoke with incredible clarity and power. I think the Administration were pretty taken aback.

And they only have themselves to blame for so many groups coming to the main Council meeting - I've never seen so many at one meeting before; but I've also never seen the grants budgets being set at one Full Council meeting with no chance for referral to another Committee of the Council for further scrutiny :-(

And worse still, almost all of the groups had been given no more than a few working days notice of budget cuts that will force many of them to close completely.

Shameful.

... and there was I believing we were all "to have real opportunity to participate in decision making" :-((