Getting something done in council
This is a story about local government, and small victories.
One of the myths about being a councillor is that full council meetings, the big set-piece affairs in the council chamber, are actually a chance to get anything done. Once a year, at budget-setting time, full council is important and meaningful, and the decisions it makes change the lives of people in the city. The rest of the year, it’s a sub-student union talking shop. Give me an hour at residents’ and tenants’ association rather than an hour at full council anyday.
So, you may have gathered that I’m not a fan of full council. But this Monday last, something strange happened: full council made a decision about real people and real people’s lives. We were asked to approve the decision of the executive board about the allocation of some unbudgeted-for income; the officer-led bureaucratic administration decided to spend some on HR and payroll systems, and some on systems thinking (no, I don’t know either).
Let’s take a step back for a moment. Earlier this year, in the allocation of grants to community and voluntary organisations, a number of excellent voluntary organisations in the south-east of the city had their applications for funding turned down. In particular, Dovecote parents’ committee had an application for £20k for preschool and out-of-school children’s activities turned down. Dovecote are based on Greater Leys, in the most deprived ward in the city (which, for comparison, falls into the 10 per cent most deprived wards nationally).
So, when the sections on approving EB recommendations come up, all the councillors were paying rapt attention to proceedings - actually, no, of course they weren’t, as it’s a nodding head exercise. I enjoyed amending the recommendations to give money to the Dovecote; listening to the Liberals attempt to argue against it; Cllr Craft scurrying into the chamber and realising that he was going to have to vote with the hated Labour group; the Greens showing some backbone and voting the right way, for once; and the next morning, calling the manager of the Dovecote to let her know that she doesn’t need to worry about closing down for a bit longer.
The Oxford Mail story is here. Just for once it was worth turning up to council.
UPDATE: what, of course, I didn’t realise when I wrote this is that the Lib Dem-run administration have been silly enough to call-in the decision for reconsideration, and one can only assume, reversal. What they think they’re playing at, I don’t know.
UPDATE UPDATE: have been assured by the deputy leader of the council (who may be wrong, but is rarely silly) that the grant is safe and hasn’t been called in after all. Hurrah!
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: nope, it’s been called in. Sigh.
