First County Council Meeting

Yesterday was the first meeting of the newly elected  Suffolk County Council in Ipswich.  The photo to the left was kindly taken by the Member for Felixstowe North, John Goodwin, just after I took my seat.

Much of the agenda was taken up by administrative matters, such as voting for the chairmen and composition of committees and sorting out nominations to outside bodies.

The Leader, Mark Bee, made a speech in which he stated that the main priority of the Cabinet in this Council would the improvement of educational standards in Suffolk.  Other commitments in the manifesto were also confirmed, such as the promise to freeze council tax over the next four years and to roll out better Broadband across the County.

The Leaders of other Groups also spoke.  I think that we were all interested to hear what UKIP had to say, since the party has elected members at the County for the first time. In the event comments from their leader were quite brief and relatively unremarkable.  They are apparently going to take a 'common sense' approach to council business.  We shall see.

The leader of the Greens made a comment about the recent report in which the desperate state of UK wildlife was revealed.  Long term readers of this site will know that this is an issue that is also close to my heart so I was pleased to hear the matter raised.

Before the meeting started we had a session teaching new councillors how to use the voting equipment.  No raising of hands like at Babergh.  The problem is that once you have voted you can't change your mind, so with a majority of only three I will need to be alert and make sure I keep my glasses on!

Voting machine!