The Budget and Council Tax levels having been set and the final true scrutiny meetings taken place, the remaining activity at Truro is centred around the formalising of what needs to be brought to the attention of the incoming Council in May. So ongoing monitoring reports, and pieces of work completed and where we feel that success or failure needs to be reported back, are highlighted in Legacy documents which will form the basis of the initial work plans of the new committees. These will be very different from the existing structure as there will be 10, each having 8 members rather than fewer committees with 15 members. I think this will help the committees to be more focused and help to make the workstreams more manageable. My concern is that there is currently no mechanism for full council to make decisions if they feel the need, as in the case of the Joint Venture. It should be possible to stop such an action without having to take a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the Leader but we must ask the Secretary of State for permission to change that part of the constitution.

I shall be standing for a second term at New County Hall and hope that you will be able to support me. I said when I stood for election 4 years ago that I felt the new Council would not be fit for purpose. I was right, and we have started to bring some democracy into the governance, but there is still more to do. The council is also such a vast undertaking that it takes quite some time to get to know all the departments and how to connect with them in order to be a really effective member. If re-elected I shall be able to touch down running.