It has been over a year since I did a “Council Webcast” blog (see here). Mindful there was a full council meeting two days ago, I thought I would check out what went on. I was pleased to note webcasts still available (see here for the latest), even though there is likely not too many people like me that lay much store to this service. But it is an important one nevertheless to catch up on matters affecting our town and seeing what our councilors are up to.

This meeting seemed relatively tame, the most contentious subject being the closing of railway level crossing which in the end most members were in agreement. The main confrontation, albeit done politely, was between the council leader and my own councilor over a meeting he could / should attend (or not). It was good to see our new mayor, Fay Evans, in operation and I was impressed by her chairmanship skills and winsome approach, which no doubt aided the calm atmosphere witnessed. It was also good to see the new town clerk, Alison Griffin, in operation for the first time, who did well in the little she had to do, with no doubt sterner tests to come.

I can’t think of all that much that was memorable. If I was to award a champagne moment it would be to Mayor Fay for handling a minor glitch over microphones at the beginning of the meeting with good humour. I was also amused by the excuses given by different councilors for “excusing themselves”. The public questions, by the usual suspects mainly, were actually quite good and so were the answers. I skipped over a lot of the deliberations over reports from the various committees by way of feedback, which is where the main work of the Council is done. I was left intrigued at the end, when there was a closed part of the meeting, which was not videoed.

So there you go – my report and little in the way of fireworks. And it was nice to have traditional prayers to start things off. I am reminded that there are councilors and they are active and whether or not I like them (and in the main I do) they have put themselves out to work for the good of the town and for that they should be commended, and we who they serve need to not only bring them to account but also to acknowledge the valuable work they do.