If it wasn’t the Labour Party in County Durham you couldn’t have made it up. I am thoroughly disgusted.

The two highest profile issues coming into my message message box over the past few weeks have been the imminent closure of the Durham Light Infantry Museum in Durham City and changes to the pay and working arrangements of Teaching Assistants (TAs) in County Schools.

At Full Council this morning there were motions on both these issues put down. One on the DLI by me, and another by Cllr owen Temple on teaching assistants. We were asking for further discussion and consultation on them. Also on the agenda was a motion put down by a Labour councillor attacking the proposed Tory government changes to trades union legislation (this was a standard motion created by the TUC that has been put down by Labour councillors in many councils across the country).

Unfortunately for the DLI and the TAs, the Labour motion was submitted first and so was debated first.

Here comes the problem. Some years ago, Labour forced through a provision in the council constitution (against opposition wishes) to limit debate on motions to a total of 30 minutes at council meetings. That’s 30 minutes total, not 30 minutes for each motion!

The constitution also allows for councillors to agree to extend the 30 minute period. So we did that and, with a vote recording the names of everyone and how they voted, Labour refused to extend the debating time.

So the TU debate started, and after w while we tried to move the debate to a vote. Again Labour voted this down and Labour Councillors queued up to filibuster the 30 minutes away, after which that debate was curtailed and voted on, with the TA and DLI motions timed out. There is a chance that these could be discussed at the next meeting, however timing may mess this up, certainly for Teaching Assistants perhaps for the DLI but I will resubmit.

So where do sprouts come in? As part of the timing out, Labour councillor Patrick Conway (Belmont division) told a tale of how his mother had worked in his native Lincolnshire picking brussels sprouts in darkest December. I doubt that TAs and DLI supporters would feel this was as important as their jobs or the future of the DLI museum.

This was a shameful day for Labour, so when you come to vote next time, you know what to do.

My previous post can be seen here: http://markwilkes.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/12/01/call-to-delay-dli-closure/

For the record, here is the list of Labour councillors and one independent (ex Labour) who refused to extend time and allow debate:

You may have read my post last week about our Labour-run council’s plan to cut school transport provision:

http://markwilkes.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/10/01/council-cutting-home-to-school-transport-for-exam-students-the-disabled-and-those-with-no-viable-public-transport/

At Children’s Scrutiny today I challenged this. Pointing out:

– the same department seeking to make the cuts has just announced it has saved 10 times as much so far this year as the cuts required to school transport – £7.6m

– the same department has £9.4m in a cash limit reserve allocated to nothing.

– the council has over estimated inflation this year as 15 times its current rate.

– the council has over estimated the cost of its debt to the tune of millions of pounds.

– the council has placed £20m in a planned delivery reserve to stop cuts such as this.

– the council has £6m more in its insurance reserve than it needs

– the council has six communications departments. If they were merged it would save upto £1.5m a year

– the council has more directors than it needs and could save hundreds of thousands of pounds by just reducing by one.

– the council said it would cut mileage allowances for staff and councillros by 3p from 48p a mile to 45p a mile which would have saved £240,000 it has now stopped this.

In total the council has £80m to play with and loads of ways to find the money it needs so that it does not need to make this harsh cut.

The response from one Labour councillor was that if anyone had sensible ideas they would be listened to but when i sugested the committee could recommend any of these things, I was simply told it was a consultation and my views would be passed across. Some scrutiny that is. The committee could have collectively opposed this madness.

And one Labour county councillor actually said that we should manage these things better to make sure there wasn’t as much bad publicity. The only people creating bad publicity are the Labour-run Cabinet on Durham County Council for acting like a bunch of far-right, slash and burn Tories.

Attempts by the Council to hike some prices at Abbey Leisure Centre have been thwarted by your Lib Dem councillors.

After finding out that Table Tennis prices would rocket by almost 100%, we have secured an over 60’s concession to keep the price down.

A plan to hike soft play for infants by 66% have been scrapped completely after we challenged this with the Head of Service and Director.

And the two broken treadmills, one out of action for several months have been replaced/repaired after our intervention. Hopefully we will not see any more daft decisions on pricing or delays in repairs but please let us know if you do spot problems.

On a brighter note there is now a new tariff which also allows you to go swimming at Freeman’s Quay for just a pound a session if you sign up at Abbey!

Cllr David Freeman, Cllr Nigel Martin and I attended the County Plan protest in the Durham Market Place today. It was well attended with some good speeches.

I have arranged a meeting with the Head of Planning this coming week to get to the bottom of how the Council plans to proceed now that it has managed to get around the Inspector’s decision to reject the County Plan.

As I see it there are a number of ways the Council could deal with this:

1. Put out an alternative County Plan in a few months for “consultation” and then ignore every view which comes back – as it has done throughout the process.

2. Arrange proper consultation sessions before producing ANY proposals and then produce an alternative plan without taking account of residents proposals – less likely but wouldn’t surprise me.

3. Arrange proper consultation on the areas of the plan which the Inspector and residents disagreed with – before producing a proposal, including the changes residents want and publish the alternative plan – how it should be done but almost certainly will not happen!

Whatever happens you can be sure it will be Lib Dem councillors standing up for our World Heritage City against a Labour-run council which so far has completely and utterly ignored the views of the vast majority of residents from Durham City and the surrounding villages.