Well not all good spirit was lost today in County Hall as the last Cornwall County Council meeting was heard, I mean at least Truro Park and Ride won the British Parking Award!
Five days and counting, and Cornwall County Council will be changing to a Unitary Authority from a two tier system of local government. With a 454 page agenda it was going to be a meeting nobody would forget, unless of course they fell asleep. However, as I sat in the public gallery it was quite disheartening to see such a poor turn out for the last ever full Cornwall County Council meeting. I mean with almost 100 years of history and with the first ever female chairperson, Lib Dem, Doris Ansari, where was all the community support? These 82 strong, 50 something, golf enthusiasts, could be voting on matters of which we, the public are ignorant, but inevitably affected by!
Madam Chair, took (a lot) of time to appreciate all the hard work done by various departments over the years with the aid of councillors. Future budgets were put it place in a desperate bid to ensure the new Cornwall Council has adequate guidelines in place after its election in June this year. Amongst all the bits of paper, hairy ears and blue rinses, there was a certain 'end of term' feel to the proceedings. I was a tad surprised at the ribald behaviour, particularly as the majority appear to be of pensionable age.
How can the local government be representative of the area when not a single member is under 50 years of age. Who will speak for youth matters, or unemployment in youths, when most cant remember that far back! But in all fairness, if you are not of independent wealth or are drawing your pension, you could not possibly afford to be a part of the new Cornwall Council. With no salary, and only expenses to claim I couldn't afford to do it.
So as Cornwall says goodbye to 100 years of tradition and hello to a one tier local government, will anyone actually be interested this time? Well we should really, they will be saving are money by paying less councillors.
