MORE STUFF (yawn)

Following on from my report of the first thrilling meeting of the new Chatteris Town Council (The Queen is dead - long live the Queen), I thought I should mention the Annual Town Meeting which immediately preceded it. The Annual Town Meeting is designed to report to the public the Town Council’s remarkable achievements of the previous year.

The start was fairly confusing as the new Town Councillors (who had not at that time signed their Declarations of Office) settled down with those that remained from the previous Council, so the Annual Town Meeting consisted of the new Council and was chaired by the previous Chairman, Florrie Newell.

The meeting was favoured by the attendance of Chatteris’s two County Councillors, Messrs. Melton and Harper. Cllr Harper (also leader of the District Council) briefly addressed the Town Council, and spoke in glowing terms of Cllr Melton’s successful restoration of Chatteris House and murmured about the possible prospect of a Chatteris Science Park. (Which some of us will believe when we see it !) As to County Councillor Melton, those of you who know Alan won’t be surprised to learn that he wasn’t going to turn down any opportunity to speak ! And at considerable length !

Cllr Melton advised the congealed masses that:
* The suggested cancellation of the Christmas lights had itself been cancelled (and as two cancellations make a positive, the lights will now happen)
* He (Cllr Melton) had almost single handedly rescued that prominent land mark Chatteris House from dereliction. (A claim which had bizarrely been the central plank of Alan’s recent election campaign). This ignored the saga of the compulsory purchase of the building by the District Council and its sudden discounted sale (as featured in the Cambs Times on 6 May 2005). The question has been asked “why should his paid employment by a commercial property developer be a recommendation for Public Office ?”.
* Fenland District Council are now at last properly collecting community benefit from Developers! No more £1million black holes ! (Cambs Times 28.10.05). However no mention was made of the reason for FDC’s earlier ineptitude, nor the apparent difficulties the District Council appears to experience in actually spending the money in the communities where it belongs !
* Finally, Alan proudly announced his elevation to County Council portfolio holder in charge of Corporate Services.
After questioning from that ‘pesky’ Lib Dem Chris Howes, County Cllr Melton admitted that County Council had finally accepted that the requirement to achieve “best value” when disposing of assets, could mean “best community value”, not just “best financial value”. THIS IS TRULY GOOD NEWS AND EFFECTS SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT CHATTERIS ISSUES !

Next it was the turn of District Cllr Murphy. The good Councillor had only that day been volunteered to represent Fenland District Council at this meeting (despite the presence of both the Leader and former Leader of FDC ). He was questioned by Cllr Howes :
* When asked to explain the £17 million reduction to the FDC revenue account, he promised to “get back on that one”.
* When asked to advise exactly why FDC had halved its annual grant to Cromwell Community College, he promised to “get back on that one”
* When asked if any of the £507,000 recently received by FDC for selling land in Chatteris that formerly belonged to Chatteris UDC, might be spent on capital projects actually in Chatteris, he promised to “get back on that one”.

Well that’s an awful lot of “getting back”. Your dedicated bloger promises to let you know if and when answers arrive to these important questions. And inform you of the answers, or remind you if the questions remain unanswered. So much to look forward to !