The big issue

Cornwall Council has a few things to decide. It's forward plan, it's office 'vision', it's services and other budgets for next year. But councillors at the full Council meeting today spent three hours - with a break for lunch - discussing whether to award themselves a pay rise of up to 33 per cent.

In a previous post, I speculated that: 'the allowances issue will be politically neutral if the Tory and Liberal Democrat groups both vote against it, and if that is the case I would expect both of these groups to reward their councillors next year for good behaviour.'

After talking for three hours the Council agreed on a one-year freeze. The Liberal Democrats proposed an amendment in favour of a 4 year freeze. They lost. So next year it seems likely the Liberal Democrats will be able to do the same thing, and then laugh all the way to the bank. OK, this is one of a very small number of things I get cynical about.

But now the only issue they seem to think worth debating for three hours is out of the way, maybe the Council decision-makers could talk about some things that matter a great deal more to people in Cornwall.