Tories win rethink on farms sell off

Today was a good day. I may be bias as, in effect, we got what we wanted but actually the debate around Labour’s proposed sell off of all County owned farms at Corporate Policy Committee was of particularly high quality.

I enjoy scrutiny at the County Council. I didn’t think I would when I was elected. Being in control at local council level I thought I’d hate scrutinising Labour’s decisions rather than making my own. Yes, of course I want to be in control at the County, but actually examining Labour policy and Labour decisions is very interesting, particularly because we are getting pretty good at proving their policies are flawed much of the time.

The farms sell off debate was a good example although, to be honest, the case that the Labour Cabinet member put was so weak it was obvious early on we were going to win the day. It turned into a bit of a turkey shoot in the end and it was clear after a fairly short time that he was not particularly well briefed on the policy he was meant to have agreed.

So, the outcome of the meeting was a proposition that I put forward on behalf of the Conservative Group which meant the policy to consult on selling all the County’s farms was returned for further consideration by Cabinet and also the establishment of a cross party Elected Member working group to see if County farms can expand instead of being sold off.

It feels as if the right result has been achieved and that in itself feels good. Labour do appear to getting more and more desperate for cash and give the impression they’ll sell anything that isn’t bolted down… what a mess!

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