Full Council last night (Thursday 1st July) was the first proper one since the General Election and so the first opportunity for our 13 Labour councillors to vent their spleens about how hypocritical, unprincipled, etc. etc. they feel the Lib Dems to be, how terribly they think the Coalition government is doing and all that sort of thing.

Not unreasonable – that’s one of the joys of being in opposition, as Labour are now at both Council and National levels, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of it.

Even so,  apart from getting things off their chests, I can’t help thinking that the 60 councillors present could have spent our time a little more productively, but that’s how it goes I guess.  Life wouldn’t be life without overlong meetings that achieve little, though outside politics not many get quite this shouty.

A brief note of commiseration for Adrian Nottingham, newly elected Independent Ratepayers councillor for Heald Green.  Yesterday was Adrian’s first Full Council and – not being in it for the party political argy-bargy, I suspect he found the nearly-three-hours of political slanging even less productive than the rest of us.

Here’s my twitter feed from the meeting, starting at 6pm and with the last tweet sometime around 10pm.

Just about to start an evening of fun & excitement.

Superbly short prayer by geoffrey clarke – thanks!

(have to say that – geoffrey reads these as a friend on facebook, but short prayers = v good)

all stockport county season ticket holders declaring an interest on the county motion.
Presentation on our standards committee. Most members are independent from council.

Standards committee had 15 complaints against cllrs last yr, none were upheld.

Apologies from 3 cllrs: conservatives mick jones, linda holt & brian bagnall.

Now a presentation on participatory budgeting – more exciting than it sounds (a little).

“you say, we pay”. Groups bid for money with council help; communities decide where money goes.

76 group & 449 residents decided how £100k would be spent in poorer areas of stockport.

Residents vote by electronic handset on whether each project gets all, most, some or none of money requested.

Big increase in people who felt involved in their communities as a result of this project.

Cllr foster-grime suggesting we’ll look at using this public participation elsewhere – good.

Every group that applied got some money; some tactical voting by public against groups that weren’t theirs.

Support right across the chamber for “you say, we pay”.

Cllrs in front of me tucking into maltesers, fruit mix & fruit pastilles. I’ve just got water.

Two cllrs reading rail enthusiast mags – spot the members of the integrated transport authority.

8,000 call centre jobs in stockport – cllr goddard tells us its now a career & battery hen days are gone.

half the labour group have questions for cllr goddard.

Cllr verdeille asks about the view from school being built in reddish. Think there’s a joke I’m missing.

Just been given a mint – the evening’s looking up.

Council will be sponsoring stockport county next season. Not glamorous, but money to stay afloat.

Lab asks cllr weldon (ld) if he now supports academies as they’re in coalition agreement. Answer: no.

4 stockport schools have expressed an interest in becoming academies (out of 117).

Mellor, ludworth, offerton high & larkhill nursery are interested in academy status.

Cllr o’neill (con) proposes motion cheering on stockport county. Think I can support that one.

That german bikers mag looks interesting – not sure those ‘leathers’ would save that lady rider in a crash.

cllr foster-grime highlights contribution of county fan david schofield in saving the club.

Motion supporting stockport county is passed. Think the next motion may be more contentious.

rest of mtg is lab attacking coalition gov. Fair enough – the privilege of opposition. 2.5 hours to go.

Just assume we’re all rehearsing the standard lines on the coalition unless I say otherwise.

Just seeing who can get tv on their phone. Don’t think there’s much on though.

no change, labour still going on.

Still going on the first labour motion.

Deputy mayor joins in the fun. Didn’t know dep mayor could speak in debates – learn something new every day.

damn that rule about not having whisky on tap in the council chamber.

lab call for named vote – we all hold our hands up until our names are called out.

Some confusion as cllr nottingham abstains on motion which is carried as amended.

last motion was on compulsory redundancies. Voted to avoid if at all possible, but can’t give 100% guarantee.

lab leader reads my blog & @libdemvoice. Would love to see you commenting on both, andy – get stuck in.
Lib dem leader: we’ll fight for stockport & criticise gov when we think they’re wrong. No slavish support.

Time for a comfort break, I think.

Still going on police cuts. Just admiring con leader les jones’ HoC portcullis cufflinks – trappings of power?

Coalition unable to reverse lab police cuts, but in gr man the plan is no cuts in frontline police numbers.

we’re still repeating the same arguments round in circles. Isn’t that what’s the Internet’s for?

lab now claiming lab police cuts will mean disaster. Come on – stop scaremongering, cllr harding.

fellow cllr on chapter 91 of the lost symbol. Feel like I could have read all 91 myself by now.

Meeting getting shouty – I did miss over what exactly, but I don’t suppose it matters much.

Motion on police cuts carried as amended. Can’t quite summon enthusiasm to tweet the details.

Onto the last labour motion – on cuts in general. Hot and sweaty – and not with excitement, sadly.

cllr harding (lab) railing against private enterprise – it doesn’t work, we’re told. Not quite persuaded.

“condem govt” gets name-check from lab, then more cheap insults. Come on cllr foster – you can do better

Lib dem executive announcing on 12th july what we’ll do on cuts.

good speech from cllr o’neill (con) – notably lacking in name-calling. And is that a slight breeze?

Cllr sue derbyshire (ld) also made excellent speech: fiery & never descending into inanity.

and a thoughtful speech from cllr scott (lab). We may be on a roll, but I still want to go home sometime.

chapter 99.

Cllr bailey (lab) can’t contain here fury. We’ve lost her respect, apparently. We’re devastated.

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