We do like Mondays

James Chard from the Citizen has kicked off the "press coverage" with a story that the leading Conservative Group has moved the Town Council meetings to a Thursday meaning that 4 out of 5 Liberal Democrat Councillors can not make the meetings.

While I appreciate your rights to know what is going on (hence this blog!) I do wish people would get it right and listen to us when we try to get the truth out as both the papers and opposition group have been informed that this is not the case.

You will see at our full council meeting this MONDAY (19:30 at The White House - residents welcome) that this is not true and Council will continue to meet on a Monday.

Not all meetings will be on a Monday, there have always been meetings on other days of the week as there are simply too many meetings each week and meetings that bring people in from other organisations as well so we can't always do a Monday.

The District Council will be liaised with so that we have as few clashes as possible but as has been the case previously they do happen from time to time.

In the past when we were the minority, we had to put up with the fact that the Liberals together with Maurice Blackman (Labour) got their way on most decisions and we had to fit in. Like when I had to miss Scouts for Thursday meetings or miss climbing on Monday evenings.

Now we have 16 councillors on the council and a clear majority of over half the council, (that’s right, we can have 11 of our members away and still have the majority) we do not need to move meetings around so the Liberals cannot make it but we do have to think of the majority of the council which is exactly the justification used during the past 8 years and if it was good enough for them then it should be good enough now!

I will be publishing details of future meetings once they are confirmed on Monday and again you are all more than welcome to attend the majority of meetings. The only major exception are working parties and times when personnel matters or contract issues etc. are being discussed.