The headline news from yesterday’s meeting of Neath Port Talbot council will no doubt be our decision to forgo the increase in allowances recommended by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales. We cannot ask our staff to accept a zero settlement this year while pocketing an increase ourselves. I could not resist reminding council in my contribution that Cllr Tony Taylor (SDP, Aberavon) had moved last year – a motion which Liberal Democrats supported – that we do not accept an increase for 2009/10. It was clear then that tough times for our constituents were on the way and we should take our fair share of the pain. However, the cabinet came round this year, and Tony was quick to second the leader’s proposal for a standstill.

The other main business was the confirmation of the revenue budget for 2010/11 and the forward plan, which lays the strategy for budget control up to 2015. There were one or two areas in which opposition members still had doubts, but the key decisions had already been taken, so there was little point in voting against.

I did make the point that scrutiny committees had had little notice (between three and six days) of the budget proposals, and in some cases less than an hour to discuss them. Leader Ali Thomas made an unexpected and gracious apology to me personally, because I was the main sufferer with unanswered questions at the end of Social Care scrutiny. (I am aware that I was not the only one.) More to the point, he promised that this would not happen again. Next year’s budget determination should be a more orderly and considered affair.

In turn, I agreed with the cabinet and officers that budget scrutiny was a continuous process, and that Liberal Democrats would play their part in suggesting improvements through the year. Cllr Linet Purcell (PC, Pontardawe) made a plea for more “twilight” committee meetings, so that those members who had to work during the day could play their full part.  She was right to do so, and we will no doubt come back to this subject.

Three nominations to the new health council covering our area were then confirmed. All are Labour members, as expected. None of them sit on Social Care, Health and Housing scrutiny committee, which was somewhat surprising. I questioned what sort of feedback there would be to the council from the new, more remote body. David Michael, head of legal services, replied that there were talks involving the health authorities and the Welsh Local Government Association as to how local authorities and the health councils would work together. This is something we will have to work at as the new system beds in, so that we lose as little as possible of the democratic involvement which was part of the former structure.

Finally, we relaxed in a welter of good-humoured speeches as we said farewell to Will Watson, our outgoing Director of Environment.

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