Hoping for Real Change at County Hall

Yesterday, at a meeting of the full County Council, the Lib Dem group had an opportunity to put forward our own topic for a themed debate. We chose 'Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation Taking Account of the Recession', because this is a huge area which needs to be tackled now, according to our Director of Public Health for Oxfordshire. He gave us all a stark warning at our last council meeting that we would ignore his report 'at our peril'. With unemployment rising, and our below average educational attainment alongside the health inequalities we face, this proved to be a topic which engaged all of our councillors. We thought the debate was a success and we now look forward to seeing some real action by our Cabinet members and the Oxfordshire Partnership Board. You can read my speech here

What was not so positive to see was the reaction of the Conservatives to our motion on climate change, where we were proposing some real action to cut our carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010 (10:10). Many other councils have signed up to this, and with the current high profile of the Copenhagen summit and protestors climbing up the towers of Didcot Power Station, we thought it was an excellent opportunity to engage our County Council. We were disappointed to hear that in David Cameron's own back yard, despite the rhetoric about Tories going green, there doesn't appear to be much evidence of it on the ground.