The most important thing on the meetings agenda was the 'management of succession' or choosing a new Chief Executive for the council. This was heard behind closed doors, after the press and the public had been excluded from the council chamber. I, and the other Lib Dems have a fundamental problem with some of the agenda item being taken in secret. The fact that the Chief Executive at the moment is temporary is something that has been in the local paper and so the discussion about appointing a new one seemed to be something that did not need to be a secret. Obviously, things like people possibly losing their jobs needed to be discussed with them before it became public knowledge; I would hate to read in the Herald that my job was at risk.
Eden District Council has had problems before with secrecy - and with the release of secrets into the public domain. If something is already public, what is the point in trying to keep it secret?
I am not giving away secrets when I say that EDC decided that it was going to ask Carlisle City Council if it would like to share a chief executive - Gordon Nicholson, the leader of the council has already given a statement in the Herald. I don't think this is the right thing to do -not at this point in time anyway. There can be no denying that the council has a spending deficit which needs to be fixed; but I, and a number of others, believe that this entails a radical restructuring and this could be best achieved by having our own chief executive to oversee this, rather than one that is in charge of two such differing councils. However, we lost this vote, and so we need to get on with things now, and do what we can to make sure that the interests of Eden are served, no matter what.
