Concessionary Travel and Educational Achievement

Today was the first full County Council meeting of 2010 - so did we get off to a flying start? Well, perhaps it could be described as one step forward and two steps back. I put down a motion on concessionary travel, in the hope that when the administration of this national scheme becomes a function of the county council, we can ensure that all schemes, including community travel can benefit. This would mean that any future government would need to fully fund the scheme which is currently operated by district councils. There is an e petitition here which I urged everyone to sign.

I was hoping that we would get some consistency across the county so that whether you have a good bus service, or have to rely on a voluntary or community transport scheme, everyone could use their concessionary passes. By writing to the Department of Transport, we would be making representation now in advance of taking over this function in the future. As expected, the ruling group did not support the motion, but at least I raised awareness of what could be achieved if we acted now.

During the afternoon, we had the second of our themed debates. This time it was the turn of the Labour group, who chose Educational Achievement as the topic. The County has not been doing too well here, especially compared to our statistical neighbours, so the idea was to try and raise expectations especially within our schools. Again, many words were spoken on the subject with a whole range of contributions from the floor. At least one thing is certain from this new way of engaging councillors at council meetings - so far, we are getting much more interest from all councillors of all political parties. What will happen to all our ideas and suggestions - who knows? I am watching all of this with much interest to see if we can really make a difference or will it be business as usual.

You are free to read my speeches online. One thing I do enjoy about full council days is carefully researching and preparing my speeches and hoping that someone somewhere is listening!