Budget 2012-13

Well a surprise was that the Conservative half of the coalition was happy to accept our amendments to the budget, the downside was that this closed down the opportunity for debate on those proposals. Neither does it commit the administration to implementing the council tax freeze (which does not entail any service cuts, merely the acceptance of money from the government) if they decide not to. This would be a crying shame in my opinion.The Independent half of the coalition were not happy to take these amendments on board so voted in opposition to their Conservative colleagues.                                        I have just returned from the consultation event for HealthWatch in Cornwall. This was to help decide what the new structure should look like and piggybacked on this was a consultation by Adult Care and Support with regard to the services which people felt should be in place for the future. An interesting meeting with good input from those attending which together with results from the events earlier in the week in St Ives and St Austell should provide a good basis for commissioning.