I have been chomping at the bit to go to a full council meeting since the last one. I must admit that after tea it was later than I wanted so I had to rush to the council offices, which luckily are only about 12 minutes away.
I did a little bit of preparation, downloading the agenda pack for the meeting so that I could access it with my iPad in aeroplane mode. My Apple pencil was charged and I was ready to take notes. I also had a notepad with me that I could use.
The session started well, it came out that there were three motions to go through, including a deputation, they were;
- Support for the Climate And Nature Bill
- Support for the “Hands Off Gosport” Campaign
- Support for the Stubbingtonn Study Centre (which is threatened with closure by Hampshire County Council
I knew I would start having problems when the discussions around the motions were finished and the council was ready to move on to the next agenda item. By then it was around quarter past 8, and we had only just scratched the agenda.
With the introduction of next year’s budget and the associated 20-minute speech, followed by the twenty or so minutes offered by the opposition, it was now past 9PM, and discussions around the budget had only just begun and there were at least four or five other items left on the agenda, meaning we could easily be there for another two hours.
Too much I’m afraid. It would be too late, and so, much to my dissatisfaction, I decided to leave. One other thing I wanted to do was after the meeting had (fully) finished, I was going to sit out on the high street and record a few minutes of video giving my impression of the meeting.
Well, I did that – but to be honest it was more about how the whole thing went, but I recorded about 10 minutes worth, which will of course never see the light of day on YouTube.
Bills Posts 