Sitting in the council chamber listening to debates with the controlling LibDem group sometimes throws up some issues that really make you wonder if you are living in an alien world.
These occasions arise where issues that are really common sense to me deviate through the debate into areas of speculation and conjecture or worse, flights of fancy or dogma and become the basis for decisions made by the council.
The analogy of Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the Kings New Suit of Clothes comes to mind in these cases.
Recently there have been issues that have followed this path, unfortunately, the consequence of decisions arising could have a serious impact on residents and which is why I would like to have the opinions of others to make sure I am being reasonable in my analysis
Recent issues arose during the debate on the amount of money the council should spend on changing its fleet of vehicles from diesel to electric power.
In itself a sensible decision, the debate highlighted the current unsuitability and nonavailability of heavy vehicle for the waste fleet used for waste collection.
Perfectly sensible and necessary debate but as soon as the details of the decision making process were debated and questions asked, the answers moved into the surreal.
Question ‘In terms of CO2 reduction how is the cost v benefit analysis carried out’
Answer ‘ We don’t carry out any calculation, it is just the right thing to do’ Is this really how to make value decisions?
Question ‘ the use of Biodiesel would deliver 10x the CO2 savings with little of the capital cost
Answer ‘ we do not count the benefit of CO2 savings generated this way because we may not be able to guarantee the fuel comes from a sustainable source even though they are certified as being entirely from approved sources.
Is this a case of Dogma over commonsense?
Question ‘ why are we spending a very close to 7 figure sum on installing charging points on council property.
Answer ‘ we are future proofing our capability so that in 7 years when our new replacement fleet needs to be changed we have the power to charge them’
Is spending at this level on something that may well change because of rapid technology development over the next 7 years before anything can be done sensible?
Question,’ given the rapid rate of change and development of solutions for HGV power and the probability of alternative solutions being available in 7 years is this a sensible decision’
Answer ‘ future proofing is a good investment’,
Is this sensible as changing technology for HGV's could well require a different solution?
Question ‘ the council has invested £12million in ‘green projects’ over the last 4 years, over a quarter of all capital spending. This has saved about 2500 tons of CO2 per year and based on the value of CO2 savings quoted by the government implies a payback of over 50 years. Is this the best use of tax payers money?
Answer ‘ we do not look at cost when we are saving CO2’
When its perceived as not your money it is easy to let Dogma drive your decisions
On different subject
Question, ‘ following the governments confirmation that the facilities for men and women in public buildings should be kept as separate facilities not merged will the council change its plans for Broadmeadow Leisure Centre to reinstate separate male and female changing areas’
Answer ‘our plans for a ‘Village type’ integrated changing plans (doing away with toilets, urinals, showers etc) are acceptable
Asking that the rights perceived by a minority group require everyone else to do conform should not result in proposals that are unacceptable to the vast majority
I have paraphrased the questions and answers above to shorten the comments, however, the key questions for me are:-
Is a ‘Green Agenda’ based an ‘at any cost’ appropriate for the council?
Am I right in looking to see tax payers money spent with due regard to costs and benefits given that every £ spent in one area prevents that £ being spent in another?
Am I right in believing the respect and consideration to different groups in our communities should be at the core of decision making and that we need to avoid falling into a ‘woke mentality’ trap where minority rights outweigh majority rights?
Please let me know what you think.
Cllr Phil Bullivant
07768355544