Public interest, secret debate

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Locality Board, sounding the death knell for local democracy.

It's made up of the Canterbury City Council Executive and the 9 Kent County Council members who represent constituencies in the Canterbury District. It meets behind closed doors, and "Minutes (including a record of attendance and any conflicts of interest) will not be widely circulated".

I'll be examining the Locality Board more closely in another post.

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Service discussed behind closed doors

The fate of the district's youth centres remains a mystery, after councillors met in private to discuss the issue. A £1 million cut in funding for youth services means there could be only one Kent County Council-funded youth club left in Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay. Faversham Youth Club is also under threat.

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Council demolition failure

Now this is interesting. Firstly Mr McMahan doesn't say where his figure of £750,000 comes from - is this what CCC have actually paid the contractors? - but I really like his idea that money generated from the demolition could have been re-invested in the Pier.

Secondly, the Council spokesman (Wormtongue, as I think of him) seems to be having trouble with numbers when he says "... it was discovered that the amount of asbestos in the building was understated and its removal was more problematic than first envisaged. The council has incurred no extra cost ...".

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