No Webcams at County Hall

It was full council today at County Hall and there were a number of issues to be debated. We started with the Local Transport Plan 3, which is the blueprint for many schemes all over the County. The plan looks forward from 2011 - 2030 and can be seen here. I pointed out that the major challenge is to secure the infrastructure and services to support housing growth. For us in Grove, it will be investment in the NE Wantage link road and the re-opening of Grove Station, but this will need funding to make it happen. What is not clear in the plan is where all the funding will come from, some of it will be from developers, but this will be a huge challenge.

We discussed the benefits of the Alternative Vote system against First Past the Post, post offices, social care and then the possibility of webcasting our meetings. The idea is to make the council more transparent and give people the opportunity of seeing their council debates live and perhaps finding out how their local councillor votes on particular issues. Bob Neill MP had written to the Leader of the Council recommending that the public should have more access to council meetings. Unfortunately, this was voted down by the ruling group on the grounds that this would cost too much. All we were asking for was a report with costings to come back to a future meeting. South Oxfordshire, Cherwell and Oxford City Council are already doing this, it costs very little - so what a shame we cannot do the same.

The press have picked up on this story so you can read this here.