Last night's Council meeting cleared one thing up: the Conservatives read this blog. As far as any thing else goes nothing changes. The Conservatives used their majority to vote in the Mayor Designate and again their majority ensured our budget amendment was voted down and the Tory Budget went through.
The bold Liberal Democrat motion for an hour's free parking, offset by introducing evening charges, was thrown out and ridiculed by Cllr McKinlay and her colleagues last week for being uncosted. However, the Liberal Democrats were told by officers that, on the basis of the figures that were available, this would be a viable alternative suggestion that would offset the cost.
A number of events normally held during Local Democracy Week (beginning on 12th October 2009) are taking place in Epsom & Ewell this week, after Lib Dem councillors campaigned for the Borough Council to participate.
After concerns from residents, Abbey campaigner Simon Sansome and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Leicester West, Peter Coley, visited the garages in the Marwood Road area to see for themselves the criminal damage done to local garages.
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats through a freedom of information request has
Ken Clarke's legendary hush puppies made no sound this week as they padded their way to EU Commission President Barroso's office. True, the Daily Telegraph got wind of the story last Monday, but between then and the Shadow Business Secretary's return home there was no further media comment, no photographic evidence and not so much as a press release to mark the occasion. For the Tories, this silence qualifies as a result. Their only pro-European big gun, Clarke's mission was to build bridges in advance of a General Election which, if the Tories were to win it, would usher in the most destructive, anti-European government in British history. This task was not an easy one. The last thing David Cameron wanted is to carry it out in public. Either his emissary went to Barroso with all eurosceptic guns blazing and annoyed those who matter most or else he makes cooing noises that would set off spasms of fury from the Tories' euro-hostile majority. You can understand why this meeting was not for public consumption.