The Leader reminded Members that at the last Council meeting, some time was spent reporting on and scrutinising the ‘do or die’ preparations for exiting the European Union on 31 October.  He said that there were thoughts about road congestion, curtailment of food and medical supplies, delivering our own services and even possible civil disobedience.

He said that, as suspected by many, it didn’t happen and it was very inclusive of Westminster politicians to devolve down to local authorities the politics and governance of futility, even though they had better things to do than use up resources on hypothetical non-events.

In considering the future position, the Leader questioned what was next - leaving with a deal, where a transition period might follow with regulatory alignment ruling out the need for emergency measures?; or leaving with no deal?; or not leaving and a new deal?; or maybe to remain?

The Leader referred to the General Election and acknowledged the intrusion into the Council’s day to day work. He explained that slight changes had been made to the Council’s meetings schedule to observe the purdah conventions and the need for space, just prior to the poll. The Leader reminded Members of the long-term absence of the Chief Executive and departure of the Democratic and Electoral Services Manager prior to the election and highlighted the challenges facing the new team in delivering the election.  He asked for everyone to be supportive of the team.

The Leader referred to political campaigning and stated that whoever was elected in Sittingbourne and Sheppey, and Faversham and Mid-Kent, he hoped they would engage with what the current administration at SBC was trying to achieve.

It was now six months since the Coalition brought forward its plans for the next four years and the Leader gave a review. He said that he welcomed the work being done by the Policy Development Review Committee on Area Committees, and he hoped that this would come to fruition and that he then looked forward to working on the intention to have Council committees involved in decision making. He said he welcomed the critically constructive part played by the Scrutiny Committee at  the previous week’s meeting in determining the way forward on some major steps for SBC.

The Leader said that very good progress was being made in several other areas: in bringing forward more affordable and social housing, forging good links with the community, establishing a strategy for health improvement and leading the way on climate change and biodiversity.  He added that the Council wanted to affect a change in the local economy, towards more diversified, better paid and more secure employment for residents and he reported a very constructive meeting with Christ Church University, where there were discussions around the role that higher education might play in providing more local GPs, more engineers and more recruits to tourism, heritage and creative employment in Swale.

In acknowledging the earlier question that the waste collection contractors had let the Council down again, the Leader questioned what kind of business organisation was unsustainable because of half term school holidays. He said that employer/employee relationships must be improved and said that public services were not necessarily best delivered through a private sector contract, especially if the public sector made unwise long-term contracts. He questioned how much easier it would have been to meet social housing targets if SBC had not been cajoled out its housing stock 30 years previously and, referring to the current issue at Westlands School, Sittingbourne ejecting school buses from its site, reflected on the benefits for local democracy if Academy Schools were brought back into local government.

The Leader gave his good wishes to all those campaigning.

Finally, the Leader paid tribute to former  Minister Frank Dobson, who agreed the funding of the Sheppey Community Hospital, and had sadly passed away this week. Members applauded his support.

In response, the Leader of the Conservative group encouraged the support of staff through the management of the election process.  The Leader acknowledged the well-run election process at SBC.