The Budget can be fun!

The annual budget council meeting is generally considered the most important one of the year. This year’s was three times the ‘fun’ with two meetings in the same week, plus another a week or so later to mop up an item that somehow got mislaid!

From time to time a Scrutiny Workshop comes up that I want to give by input and this month we looked at how well we have supported the workforce during the last year’s pandemic.  Interestingly I think we all acknowledged just how much the workforce had supported us, so many going way beyond the call of duty.

At the end of March the legal Socio-Economic Duty came into force.  Like all my fellow councillor colleagues I attended a session on this.  It’s a mouthful I know but all it means is that we need to deliver better outcomes for those people who experience disadvantage with access to enough money to live on, and other resources, plus issues related to privilege, power and control.  I like to think that as a council we have always endeavoured to do this.

And during the month some of the usual committees made an appearance such as Audit, PDCs, and two lots of Licensing.  Plenty to keep me busy!