Leader's Monthly Report - January

12.00.00am GMT Fri 5th Feb 2010

I completely forgot to do the December review - it must have been a quiet month! As I write we await the Secretary of State's announcement on LGR for Norfolk. The strong rumour is a unitary Norwich on existing boundaries with the rest of the County two tier. This would be the worst possible outcome. As well as blatant gerrymandering, it is expensive and Norwich is part of Norfolk, not a separate city. The Tories, with their exclusive focus on preventing a unitary county need to take a massive share of the blame for this - if it happens! I am not sure what many of the Tory County Councillors will now do with their time if the "unitary war" is over.

The announcement of a partial Norwich Distributor Road was a disappointment, though a reflection of the tightening economic times. We are going to have an in depth look over the next couple of months to decide whether we still support it.

Gritting was the most talked about issue at the start of the month. We got an agreement to a review of gritting priorities. It does feel as if the Council's plans assume the snow disappears after a couple of days and life then goes back to normal, which of course did not happen this time. There does not seem to be much planning around the positioning of grit boxes and who can use them. In Suffolk there are volunteer 'grit spreaders' identified by the County Council.

The County Council's plans to turn off some streetlights between midnight and 05:00 were hastily announced. Far too hastily in our view. We support the idea in principle but there needs to be adequate consultation to allay people's fears and to enable communities to influence which lights stay on. We have made a joint call in with the Greens to cabinet scrutiny of the consultation arrangements. You can feel in County hall that the general Election is looming It was very evident at a recent cabinet Meeting when Labour City Councillors played to the (non-existent) gallery when asking questions and the Tory Cabinet Members then lined up with increasing venom to denounce the Labour Government. It didn't get anyone anywhere but presumably they all felt better.

Nationally the lack of clarity about how and when Labour and Conservatives would cut public expenditure is frightening. Vince Cable is being clear for the Liberal democrats, as usual.

The recent report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8481534.stm) about the widening inequality gap showed very clearly the failings of successive Governments. Our own alternative budget, which we will propose to Council on 15th February, will include some measures to help bridge that gap in Norfolk.