Death and taxes

Last month I asked the council:

"In June, the council spent £9,987.22 on the coroners' ledger for the removal of bodies. Can I find out how many of these were holidaymakers, and if there's a "re-charge" scheme to get the money back once families have been traced etc? Presumably in cases where there are no relatives, the taxpayer foots the bill."

And today I got the answer:

"The figure represents the removal of bodies by undertakers to the designated mortuary in cases of unexpected deaths. The bodies are removed for public health reasons. Some of these will be holidaymakers but the majority will be Cornish residents. We do not charge for the removal of the bodies of holiday makers or Cornish residents."

Coping with the cuts

I suppose that if you are going to cut services to disabled people, it is better to cause as little pain as possible.

The think-tank Demos and charity Scope have combined to put together a map, showing how well/badly local councils are coping. Cornwall is ranked as "good" coming 11th out of 152. The Isles of Scilly is 43rd, Devon 55th and Plymouth 62nd.

I don't pretend to understand the methodology. But in general terms I can see that if you have a reduced amount of money, it is a good idea to spend it wisely. I'd welcome the observations of those in the front-line.

Update on the councillors who were late with their tax

Interesting that so far only two members of Cornwall Council have had the courage to "out" themselves as among the 17 who at one time or another over the past two years had to be pursued before paying their council tax.

Last week council leader Alec Robertson roundly condemned councillors who were late with their taxes, and agreed with the suggestion that a voluntary register of members who had paid on time would improve openness and transparency. That's not the same as saying that it's a good idea, or that he planned to introduce such a register. So after today's Cabinet meeting I asked him.

"No, I don't think it's a good idea and I wouldn't support it," he told me. "We've been advised that there are Data Protection issues and I'm taking that advice."

I have now had the council's formal, written, reasons for refusing to disclose the names:

"This information is exempt under section 40 (personal information) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as the information constitutes third party data. Section 40(2) provides that personal data about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is satisfied. Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the Data Protection Act (DPA), where it would be unfair to that person."

The issue is now with the Information Commission.

There is more joy in heaven...

Congratulations to Miles Davis, the Cornwall Council press officer, who is soon to resume duties as a reporter on the West Briton newspaper. I'm sure I speak for many journalists when I welcome this return to the path of true righteousness.

46, with a bullet

Many thanks to anyone who voted for me in this year's Total Politics blog awards. Number 46 in the UK's top 50 Media Blogs category. To infinity, and beyond...

Devonwall - a brief history

Remember when Nick Clegg said "there will be no rigid mathematical formula"? And then Democratic Audit simply crunched the numbers on the non-existent mathematical formula and told us exactly what would happen. The proposed boundary changes appear to cause particular difficulties for Lib Dem MPs Dan Rogerson and Stephen Gilbert. If you want to know how they voted on the third and final reading of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, you'll find the Hansard here.

Don't look now

Back in May a full meeting of Cornwall Council voted to allow broadcasters to film and record inside the council chamber. At this week's meeting, four months later, the cameras were still banned. So what's going on?

My inquiries reveal that there is something called the Member Development Working Group. It is chaired by the council chairman, councillor Pat Harvey. This working group
asked for a "draft protocol" to be agreed by them before returning to full Council.

I don't think the "draft protocol" can be a very difficult thing to draft. Broadcasters had no problems working their way around the former Cornwall County Council chamber prior to 2009.

The council tells me:

"As there are only two full council meetings this year and it is unlikely the draft protocol will have been agreed by the timescale for the October meeting and the November meeting will be considering the Council's budget , a report is scheduled to go before full Council in January. If the protocol is agreed at that meeting it is hoped that it could be implemented immediately afterwards."

All I can say is that the Member Development Working Group must have an extremely onerous workload for it to have been unable to agree the "protocols" for letting the cameras in.

Apparently meetings of the Member Development Working Group have been arranged to agree the draft protocol. I'd like to tell you more about it, such as when it plans to meet, and who its members are, but not only are broadcasters not allowed in to its meetings, neither are members of the public. It doesn't even publish its agendas.