The Tory Leader of the Council seemed a bit edgy from the start and although he tried to put forward a positive message he seemed to cut a more isolated figure as the day rumbled on. One thing he was able to do was accept the Lib Dem proposal for a Council Tax freeze which is paid for by a one-off grant from central government.

What he couldn’t do was give the Council any meaningful detail on where the Tory-led authority will wield the axe in search of £40m worth of cuts previously voted through. Indeed, at one point we had the bizarre spectacle of him trying to claim there would be no cuts, only “reductions” in service.

The fear is that, in spite of a supposed rabbit being pulled out of the hat a month or two back, areas like the rural bus network will once again come under threat due to the administration’s ill thought out plans. We have already seen this area in crisis over the last twelve months because of the administration’s failure to keep its eye on the ball and this has also been the case with the car parks budget and the provision of public toilets. I asked for a guarantee that the Cabinet would pay closer attention this year but nothing was forthcoming.

In the end the budget was passed, primarily due to Tory and Independent votes, but questions will continue to be asked over the coming months about the devil in the lack of detail. There are no signs that there will be too many answers.

It is, of course, the classic device deployed when those in charge would prefer a thorny issue to go away, but in a sense he is probably right: Cornwall Council shouldn’t have to be debating the civic function of the office of Chairman. The point he forgets is that this wouldn’t have arisen if the Chairman of the Council, whose impartiality is widely considered to be impeccable, had been left to represent Cornwall in the way she has always done since she was elected.

Instead, we have seen the Leader’s clumsy attempt to muscle in on a non-political photocall which has led to an undermining of the Chairman’s office. What is behind this I’m not entirely sure, although I’m not alone in suspecting the involvement of one of Cornwall’s Tory MPs who may or may not have instructed the Leader to “show them who wears the trousers” at their regular disaster committee meetings in the top floor bunker at County Hall.

Perhaps the question the Tory Cabinet Member should be asking is not why the Council has to waste time debating this, but rather why the Leader can’t find more important things to be doing than interfering in areas which are none of his business.

Those with reasonable medium-term memories will recall a brief storm over Councillors using the social networking site a couple of years ago, but it is now accepted as the norm (like it or not) in council chambers, courtrooms and even Parliament, with many viewing it as a more accessible way of following proceedings than the traditional method of sitting through a meeting waiting for the item (or items) of interest.

Cornwall Council’s Leader has, however, decided to park his throne right in the path of the oncoming wave of social media with his unilateral ban on the use of Twitter at today’s meeting. He read out some (admittedly less than complimentary) tweets from Members and announced that he was using the Council’s recently passed broadcasting protocol to ban any further interaction with the outside world.

Some will say that Councillors shouldn’t be tweeting during meetings at all and, although I disagree, I do understand that point of view. However, in this case the dissenting tweets came from people who were not voting members of the Cabinet and therefore not participating directly in the meeting (apart from one rogue tweet from within the inner circle). The Leader’s ban attempted to put a stop to the external debate and affected not only councillors, but journalists and members of the public too.

It’s difficult to understand the purpose of this beyond suffocating dissent and it’s questionable whether he is actually entitled to do this.

The Leader’s actions today have been nothing but counterproductive for him. The stories he wanted to put out will have slipped down the news agenda and his administration now looks even more paranoid and controlling.

The Leader has often complained about the accusations of a ‘bunker mentality’ but he really doesn’t help himself sometimes. Nor does it do a great deal for his oft-repeated claim of ‘openness and transparency’.

Some time ago I wrote a post about the facilities the Americans left behind at Trevisker St Eval. I reflected at the time that it would be a tragedy if these buildings were left empty while the local community faced the closure of its Post Office, shop and community facilities.

Two years on, after an astonishing amount of hard work from members of the community, I was invited to attend the opening of new facilities – on the site of the former US buildings at Orion Drive.

No one should underestimate what an amazing achievement this has been for the local community. There have been numerous occasions when everything seemed to be lost and it appeared that St Eval might head the way of so many other rural settlements and fall into slow decline. The local residents had other ideas. Their determination has been outstanding. They have fought their corner with the Ministry of Defence, worked up business plans and put in the hard, unpaid labour to produce a social club, kitchen, meeting venue and a new Post Office. Most crucially of all, they have never given up.

There will still be many obstacles in the future, but the local community was proud to open the doors today. It is an amazing achievement with an incredible community spirit at its heart – local residents have every right to be proud.

(You can read more about the community at St Eval here.)

Predictably there was no small amount of propaganda but there was still a chance to ask a few awkward questions (certainly there were some around the areas of localism, communications, finance and outsourcing to name a few). However the main theme that seemed to run through the question and answer session was that the Tory-led Council seems to be suffering from a siege mentality with regard to the media. Time and again we heard the mantra that the local press, radio and television broadcasters simply won’t tell the “good news” and that they concentrate on stories like the Council’s £139,000 a day consultancy habit (can’t imagine why).

There was also very little doubt about which of the two men is in charge.

Anyway, have a look for yourself or you can read the accounts of other Councillors (Alex Folkes and Andrew Wallis). The Cornish Gazette have also produced their own unique account…

There appears to have been a narrow margin in favour of the retention of my facial hair this year, although further donations may yet make me remove the bristly emblem of mid-life crisis…

‘Movember’ is over (although there’s still time to make that donation). What now for the lip monster? Time to let go, or the beginning of a special relationship? Thoughts please…

This photo was taken by Cllr Andrew Long during the lunch break in yesterday’s Full Council meeting. Pictured are Andrew Wallis on the left and Alex Folkes on the right (with a cameo appearance from the Chairman of the Council in the background). It’s not too late to donate…