Policy made on the hoof, is rarely good policy

One of the frustrations of Local Government in the modern cabinet system for Opposition Members is that unless you get the opportunity to pick up seats at by-elections during a four year term of an administration, you have little chance of changing policy made by those in control of the council unless you are able to influence sufficient numbers of their back bench Councillors to vote with the opposition on a specific topic. Some of you will I am sure say, I would not complain if my party were in control so I'll not make any further comment on this, other than to set the scene and explain to those not familiar with this system of local Government why as Councillors we may not always be able to wave a wand and fix things immediately. Indeed many people may not realise what the make up of our Council in Eastbourne is so I hope this helps (Lib-Dems 15 v Conservatives 12).

To give the Lib-Dems in Eastbourne credit where it is due, if you were to go along to see a Cabinet Meeting in action, it looks organised with each agenda item proceeding smoothly with supportive comments made by members at all the right intervals - some might even say stage managed! This impression is no accident because if a policy or report makes it to Cabinet then it is very unlikely that the contents were not planned beforehand to the last detail and the end result is merely a rubber stamping which either sees the policy or report adopted or implimented or sent on to the next Full Council meeting to be passed. With the numerical majority the administration enjoys, it is never likely to fail at this point.

One such case recently was the proposal to introduce horse and cart rides to our seafront. My children and I ride regularly at a riding school in the local countryside and my first instinct was fantastic, now others may experience the joy of interacting with horses. However, one of my colleagues, Cllr Philip Ede had rather stronger opinions on the plans and gave a very informative speech at the Full Council meeting where the plans were debated following Cabinet approval. Philip clearly had more of an idea of the impacts and his concerns were brushed aside very abruptly by Lib-Dems and the plans were approved.

After that decision was made, the Council was approached by Animal Aid, a charity with lots of experience in campaigning on animal welfare issues and last night members were priviledged to have been offered the opportunity to recieve a briefing on the impacts of adopting such a scheme. The proposed hours of operation (11am to 7pm) represented a very long day for the horses to be performing this work, they showed little acknowledgement of the welfare needs of the horses with no detail about the gallons of water that would need to be available for drinking and cooling, especially given our proud boast as a town for long sunshine hours which would surely have compounded the situation. There is no suitable grazed area anywhere near the proposed route at which the horses could rest in a more natural environment and furthemore the combination of our road infastructure and the conditions the horses would have been working in, would have placed the animals in great risk of permanent injury, discomfort and possibly even lead to very premature death, let alone possible risk of injury to people if the horses became stressed or spooked.

It is a very great shame that more research was not carried out before Cabinet Members recommended Full Council approve the plans but an even greater shame their complacent attitude did not allow them to listen to the sensible advice given by Cllr Ede. I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to see the Animal Aid presentation and even more pleased that in the wake of it, local Lib-Dems have been forced to back track on their plans.