The new Council begins

The annual meeting of the Council, and it didn't seem at all strange not to be part of it, but a very interested onlooker.  What made the day for me was seeing Julia Cherrett and Elliot Kennedy (now the Councillors for Bishopgarth and Elm Tree Ward) getting on with the business as I walked in.  A huge relief to know that the ward is in good hands.

Not a relief at all to know that the future of our Borough is with a strange coalition of Labour and Ingleby Barwick Independents.  Not a hint in anything said of any policy base for this coalition, but there seems to be a nice sorting out of seats on Cabinet, but even worse on the running of select committees that scrutinise how services are being run - Labour and IBIS have all the chairs and vice chairs except for 4 to share out amongst 23 other councillors.  Call that real scrutiny ? really ?