Annual Council Meeting

Last Tuesday evening saw a full council meeting followed by the annual
council meeting.

The full council meeting considered a number of recommendations from the
council's executive along with recommendations from the council audit and
regulatory committee, followed by annual reports from the audit and
regulatory committee and the council's various select committees.

I spoke on both the audit and regulatory report, and the annual report on
the select committees with particular reference on the select committee's
report to the transport committee which was one of the recommendations from
our study towards the end of last year into the Greater Manchester
Congestion Charge.

This is of particular importance at the moment as the plans and proposals
for what Greater Manchester will be able to on transport following the
failure of the congestion charge proposals are been announced and expanded
on, not least locally with an alternative or shorter version of the Mottram
/Tintwistle or as it will be in the new proposals Mottram Bypass been one of
the plans.

The full council meeting finished off with two motions, one around concerns
over proposals from Government on having elected police chiefs /
authorities, and the other around concerns over the recycling site at
Waterswallow's in Buxton that has dragged on for some time.

However given the current time as close to the County and European elections
as we are, the tone and discussion around the motions had very little to do
with the content of the motions, with the bulk of the discussion been on how
things would all be much better if the electorate replaced the current
county council with one of the same hue as the controlling group on the
council.

This was a particular waste in terms of the motion around the police, as the
issues within the original motion although perhaps worded a little wordy
were valid concerns that I'm sure many of the councillor's are aware from
issues within the only areas.

The annual council meeting then followed with the traditional Mayor making
ceremony which passed off without any of the controversy of the previous
year, with Cllr Tony Bingham from Chinley been installed as Mayor and Cllr
Cynthia Mitchell from Tintwistle as Deputy Mayor.

The rest of the elections for the executive, leader of the council etc
followed and essentially there are no changes except for one or two of the
chairs / vice chairs.