³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

One of the most significant developments in recent years in the debate about Cornwall's second home voters has just been posted on Cornwall Council's website, in the form of a His advice has prompted this recommendation from Cornwall's election officials:

"That the Electoral Service adopt a procedure whereby all applicants for electoral registration who reside in a property where Council Tax second home rebate has been claimed are requested to supply further information in accordance with a Type B Review before registration is permitted or refused."

I think there might be a few questions asked about this idea, submitted to a full meeting of Cornwall Council for endorsement on Tuesday:

"increasing the financial limit for capital and revenue payments and receipts for officer decisions to £1,000,000 for capital and £500,000 per annum for revenue.....limiting the discount that can be allowed by the Director for Resources in making a disposal decision to £250,000 in relation to capital and £250,000 per annum in relation to revenue."

"The amendments proposed are considered to be necessary so as to ensure efficiency of effective decision making on property transactions without the need to refer every disposal or acquisition decision to Cabinet."

An interesting proposal from a group of Conservative and Independent councillors will be debated next week:

"....it would be unjust to allow second home concessions to continue; thus the Council resolves that; a) Group Leaders make representations, in writing, to the minister to remove the present second homes council tax discount and endorse the
use of the additional revenue for new and additional affordable homes..."

A highly sensitive document has mysteriously appeared on my desk. It's a draft Business Plan from Cornwall's Primary Care Trust, outlining the ways and means of taking Cornwall's community hospitals outside of the National Health Service - a decision endorsed by the PCT Board yesterday.

This bit was deleted during a private part of yesterday's meeting, once the press and public had been excluded:

"...through our market assessment, we understand that it will not be possible for our new Community Interest Company to continue to offer the full portfolio of services that Cornwall Community Health Services did."

"In order to further the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the Community Interest Company, a number of strategies already exist to reduce patient lengths of stay and acute admissions. As a result of this, it is envisaged that the number of beds required will therefore be reduced.....CHS needs to reduce its bed-stock by a total of 54 beds to increase productivity."(PCT emphasis)

54 beds is about 20% of Cornwall's entire community hospital stock. In other words, one patient in five would have to be "managed" out of the system. The document identifies stroke patients as those particularly suitable for treatment elsewhere (but it doesn't say where).

The PCT assures me that both of these highly controversial paragraphs have now been removed and of course I accept that assurance. I also accept that the document in front of me is an early draft and that the thinking that went into yesterday's decision took some months to evolve.

But I still have some questions. What has happened between December 2010 and today which has miraculously restored "the full portfolio of services?" Was the author of the draft correct in December, and somehow mistaken yesterday? I'd love to know more about the "market assessment" on which that December opinion was reached.

There are other questions about "process" - the way in which some highly political healthcare judgements have been considered in secret. Why was the idea of cutting 54 beds not debated in public? Is the National Health Service not a public institution, with every penny of its budget spent from the public purse?

The PCT tells me that much of the draft Business Plan is commercially confidential. I beg to disagree - it might be confidential to anyone who is looking to make money out of the NHS, but not to NHS patients or to NHS staff. So why not let NHS "suppliers" produce their own confidential documents? To those who suspect that these NHS reforms are all about privatisation, this document looks remarkably like a smoking gun.

The same section of this draft Business Plan goes on to talk about a "beds review" which should have been completed in March or April. I've asked the PCT for a copy. It also reveals a "" (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention) which talks of saving £6m on Cornwall's health services by 2014 - £0.5m cuts in 2011/12; £2.5m in 2012/13 and £3m in 2013/14.

St Ives MP Andrew George, who has expressed concern about the way the NHS is being "reformed" has some questions of his own and in a letter to the PCT asks for confirmation "(a) that these sections were contained in the Business Plan submitted to the Strategic Health Authority at the end of December last year? (b) that these sections were contained in the Business Plan shown to members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recently? (c) whether or not a Community Hospitals Bed Review has been undertaken yet whether would you acknowledge that by implication, such a process would be part of the preparatory work required for the setting up of the Community Interest Company?"

The document preparing the way for a "Community Interest Company" begs at least two more questions - which community? And whose interest? I've blogged the background to this before and I dare say there's more to come.

STOP PRESS: ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Cornwall aims to have more on this on our breakfast programme with James Churchfield tomorrow morning. I've invited the PCT to contribute.

Local government minister Andrew Stunnell has just told me he's giving the Cornish Language Partnership £360,000 over the next three years, which should secure its future until well into 2015. You can hear the interview on Martin Bailie's programme this afternoon 5pm - 6pm.

Truro City Councillor Loic Rich, who represented Mebyon Kernow in last year's general election, tells me how pleased he is with his new political home in the Conservative Party. "I do, really, genuinely believe in what the Conservative Party is doing," he says. "I know many people think the Tories are the party for the Home Counties but that's just not true. The Conservatives really care about Cornwall."

What specific advice did Cornwall Council give to leader Alec Robertson about his "internal party group" decision to remove Jan Powell from the Health & Adults Overview & Scrutiny Committee? Here's the answer:

"The Monitoring Officer is frequently asked about the impact of potential or actual personal interests on a Member's participation in meetings - and that is both by the Member impacted and other Members on the same committee who are aware of the interest and are concerned about the affect of this on the effective conduct of the committee's business. It would not be appropriate to discuss detail of privileged legal advice given to the Leader or any other Member."

Cornwall Councillor Jan Powell, elected as a Conservative in 2009 to represent the Liskeard North division, tells me she is defecting to the Liberal Democrats. Hear what she has to say on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Cornwall's Martin Bailie programme 5pm - 6pm today. I think this could have some very serious repercussions for the council leader, Alec Robertson. I hear the sound of knives sharpening...

I find that if I stare long enough at the which Cornwall Council helpfully provides to illustrate its current political composition, all sorts of weird notions enter my mind. Such as adding up the numbers of all those councillors who could be broadly described as "Opposition" - I make it 44. There are 48 Conservatives and 31 Independents, giving the coalition a theoretical total of 79. Yet we know that some of those Independents do not fully support their own Independent group, never mind the coalition. In any event, only 18 of those Independents would have to swap sides bring about a change of political control. Or to put it another way, 18 Independents would have to support the Conservative-led administration in a vote of confidence.

Whether we like it or not, local councillors are elected politicians. We should not be surprised if they want to campaign - indeed, when they come trotting down the garden path in search of our votes, they actively promise to campaign.

This is why I'm currently asking Cornwall Council for precise details of the legal advice given to leader Alec Robertson before he wrote to his Conservative colleague Jan Powell, dismissing her from the Health & Adults Overview & Scrutiny Committee. The council has confirmed that Alec sought, and obtained, legal advice but insists that the decision was for Alec alone, as the leader of the Conservative Party group.

At the heart of this is the impression that Jan's sacking had something to do with the fact that she has a daughter with learning disabilities. Yet it's hard to imagine a councillor who has been more assiduous at

I wonder how many members of Cornwall Council, particularly those with relatives who might need some sort of social care, would even consider registering such an interest. Jan's declarations even go so far as to make it absolutely clear that she has helped raise petitions to oppose the closure of day centres. Hence my point about elected politicians and campaigning. If that's not what they are for, then why are they on the council at all?

There is of course a real conflict of interest in this story. That is the conflict between politicians who were elected to campaign, and full-time professional officials who sometimes find such campaigns quite irritating. The conflict between the council's waste disposal department and its incinerator ambitions, and elected politicians from the St Dennis area, is a case in point. It's the same old same old about who really runs the council.

Yesterday morning Cornwall Council leader Alec Robertson told his Cabinet colleagues that the Independent group would be meeting that afternoon to consider appointing someone to the "vital" education portfolio as a Cabinet Support Member. The Independent group did indeed meet - but again decided not to appoint anyone. So the education brief remains with Indy cabinet member Neil Burden, as part of his wide-ranging role looking after Children, Schools and Families. And the Indies, who want something with a bit more beef (economic regeneration?) remain at loggerheads with their Conservative coalition partners over the precise purpose of these unpaid Cabinet Support posts.

My thanks to the for drawing my attention to today's The interesting bit is that there has to be a vote in 2013.

Any Cornwall Council Cabinet members, or indeed anyone else, could help me out here by asking some obvious questions at tomorrow's Here's the bit that caught my eye:

"There is a large risk facing the Council that has arisen since April. Legal action has recently been served on the Council for failing to set a 'lawful' rate in setting care home fee levels for 2011-12. If the legal action is successful, very significant costs could ensue and place this budget in an extremely precarious position."

Last month the council got in a bit of a muddle about the difference between consultants and contractors, so I asked for a like-with-like comparison with previous years. The now tells us that for the financial year 2010/11:

"The authority spent £13.7m on agency/temporary staff and £7.2m on consultants."

"Over the past two years the Council has reduced spending on consultants by more than £4 million from the £15.4m spent by the former County Council in 2008 / 2009 to £11.2 m in 2009 / 2010."

An interesting bunch of documents in which various high-up people involved in the St Dennis incinerator project talk about contractors and tender specifications. There are phrases such as "contractors are offering flue gas cleaning systems which do not have the same operating track record as the more traditional systems. I am trying to understand the constraints, if any," and elsewhere "fob off" - any engineers able to interpret this stuff for me?

Those clever people at Democratic Audit have now published the into what the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act will mean for Cornwall. It looks like a return to some old constituency boundaries, and a first-time leap across the Tamar.

Democratic Audit thinks the new-look constituencies will be Falmouth & Camborne, Truro & St Austell, Bodmin & Newquay, St Ives and South East Cornwall. There would also be a cross-border constituency called Torridge & Tintagel. Democratic Audit says:

"From the point of view of Cornwall, the immediate interest (until the Act can be amended) is in finding a least-worst option. The worst option would be for the border to be crossed more than once, for instance a seat in the south adding some tightly defined areas (Saltash and possibly Torpoint) to Plymouth plus another border crossing in the north. The BCE is unlikely to follow such an option.
The basic question then becomes south or north. One commonly discussed option is to cross the Tamar in the Plymouth urban area. One needs to remember that we are talking about nearly half a constituency (32-37,000 electors). The four wards of Saltash amount to 13,315. Taking in Torpoint and the hinterland wards of St Germans and Rame brings us up to 27,000, and then one would need probably Gunnislake and Kelly Bray (and possibly Callington). On the Plymouth side, the wards would probably be St Budeaux, Devonport, Ham and Stoke. It would be a pretty incongruous seat, combining some very urban and very rural areas whose communities have rather little to do with each other (both may share links with central Plymouth).
In some ways, crossing in the north is the lesser of two evils. It would bring communities with something in common together (tourism, agriculture, moorlands) and one could at least cross from one bit of the constituency to another without paying a toll!
A northern crossing would also involve less of a radical redistribution of the constituencies in the rest of Cornwall (see below). It enables a reconstruction, more or less, of the pattern that existed before the 2010 boundary changes and the sixth seat. Abolishing South East Cornwall would lead to large shifts in the rest of the county and the combination of unfamiliar towns in the same constituency.
Note: Cornwall UA wards are occasionally split between current constituencies. Such split wards are listed below with the current constituency to which the majority of its electorate belongs, although the number of electors accurately reflects the allocation of partial wards. The new model does not split any wards."

Congratulations to South West Lib Dem Euro MP Graham Watson, knighted in the Queen's birthday honours, and henceforth to be known as Sir Graham. Obviously no relation to South West Lib Dem Euro MP Graham Watson whose name is listed as a supporter of the anti-monarchy pressure group, (In case you were wondering, I am no relation to Graham Smith, Republic's campaign manager).

The reason I say this is that council leader Alec Robertson this morning declined my invitation to talk about it on the grounds that it was "an internal political group issue." This confirms that Jan's removal from the committee, which had elected her as its chair, was nothing to do with competence or popularity. And there is no shortage of councillors, from all political parties and from none, who tell me that this is all about the worsening feud within the Conservative group at County Hall.

It's only a couple of months since Cornwall's Conservative councillors held their annual general meeting and Alec narrowly survived a challenge to his leadership. Then wheels started falling off his plan for Cabinet Support Members; he lobbied the government to approve the St Dennis incinerator project, despite having opposed it himself; and then he had to spend the best part of a week fighting fires caused by the Daily Telegraph's "credit card scandal" - a non-story of the council's own making.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Alex Salmond is today reaping the rewards of what happens when you take a rather different approach to a very similar set of initial conditions. In 2007 the Scottish Nationalist Party leader found himself at the head of the largest group in the Parliament, with 47 of the 129 seats (in 2009 Alec had 50 out of 123 in Cornwall).

Rejecting the idea of coalition, Alex Salmond then lead a minority administration which picked only those parts of his election manifesto which could command broad support. At the end of the term, many commentators described the administration as being notable for its competence, rather than political ideology. Despite this Scotland remained a land without university tuition fees, but with good schools, an excellent health service and universal care for the elderly. Earlier this year the Scottish government even abolished NHS prescription charges and today Alex Salmond commands all that he sees, with no need to ask any other parties about anything in Scotland if he doesn't want to.

I suspect that Alec Robertson sometimes has to deal with some backbench members of his own Conservative group who are perhaps less pragmatic than those in Alex Salmond's party in Scotland. But the bottom line is that there is no point behaving as if you have an overall majority if the reality is that you "command" only 40 per cent of the votes. And in Alec's case, with a hopelessly divided group, not even that. As I have blogged previously, a cardinal rule of politics has always been to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

What would it take, I wonder, for the Cornwall Council Independent group - currently junior partners in the Conservative-lead administration - to draw up their own list of key priorities and then do a deal with the Liberal Democrat and Mebyon Kernow groups, and other individual councillors? Or perhaps those on the Opposition benches at County Hall are currently having too much fun.

The Royal Cornwall Show website is a useful barometer of what's hot and what's not in life outside the city walls. Type the word "solar" into the exhibitors' search engine and you get no fewer than 13 entries from subsidy-seekers. Type the word "organic" and you get 15 entries. I've no idea where this thread is going but as I write this, the Women's Institute is meeting in Liverpool and debating whether to call for a ban on factory farming. Suggestions, please, for exhibitors' entries in the year 2030...

STOP PRESS: It looks as if the Women's Institute decided not to debate the factory farming motion after all, following complaints from some delegates in Liverpool that it lacked clarity and needed a tighter definition of what was meant by a "factory farm."

To the Royal Cornwall Show, which of course is a showcase for rural life as it really is and not as some London-based media-types would have us believe. From the exhibitors' list:

"The Hoseasons Group is committed to ensuring your second home earns the highest income possible..."

The Calender Girls are heading to Liverpool for their annual conference on Wednesday and will debate this resolution:

"This meeting abhors the practice of factory farming particularly large animals such as pigs and cows and urges H.M. Government to ensure planning permission is not granted for such projects."

Musing over the list of exhibitors at next week's Royal Cornwall Agricultural Show at Wadebridge I notice there are nine schools touting for business. Seven of them are private schools, one is a state boarding school from Somerset where parents pay for the accommodation, and there's Bodmin College, now an academy. I wonder what Wadebridge School thinks of that?

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations has just announced Winner, for Crisis Communications - Cornwall Council. Well done!

Anyone who's ever been a manager in a large organisation will know that dread feeling when it's time for the annual audit.

The moment when you wish you'd made a contemporary note of precisely how far you'd driven, nearly a year earlier, to get to a certain appointment. Or when you struggle to remember the names of all the former staff members who'd joined you for dinner, at the company's expense, at a conference in Blackpool. And the blind panic when the accountant peers at you over the top of his spectacles and without saying a word, his raised eyebrow let's you know he's doing you a huge favour by signing off on your departmental records.

I can imagine that's how it's been for quite a few people at County Hall this week. Hundreds of archive invoices to be tracked down, questions asked, countless person-hours devoted to answering questions which no-one ever thought would be asked.

How much has this week cost, both in terms of the Daily Telegraph's initial damaging publicity, which made Cornwall Council a national laughing stock, and in terms of the effort to muck out the stable afterwards?

That job of mucking out the stable has been performed by a relatively small number of people at the council, and I have to say I think they've done a very good job of it. They have reminded us of the vast range of services that the council delivers, that it reaches into almost every aspect of our lives, and that it provides a huge, generally civilising presence in our society.

But I don't expect to make any friends at County Hall by saying that I think it was entirely reasonable to question the information which the council itself put into the public domain. When the council spent thousands of pounds in pubs and restaurants, and gave no other clues as to why it did this, how many of us would automatically assume that it was for housing the homeless or to support a Department of Work and Pensions jobs scheme?

Or if an apparently excessive hotel bill, which says specifically that it was for two people, turns out after exhaustive investigation to have actually been for three people?

And should the Daily Telegraph have assumed that when the council answered its Freedom of Information question in pounds sterling, that the council actually meant a basket of foreign currencies which it had failed to convert - giving the impression that it had spent 100 times more than it really had?

The situation wasn't helped by the council's initial response. On Tuesday morning council leader Alec Robertson berated the media for using the term "credit" card. The council's own statement, issued on Saturday says

"Using credit cards is an efficient and transparent method of payment and is standard practice in both the public and private sectors."

The way the council handles information is clearly in need of drastic overhaul. I imagine Chief Executive Kevin Lavery will want to focus on the email exchange between the Daily Telegraph and the council in the days leading up to last weekend's media firestorm. His inquiry needs to go further.

A Freedom of Information request takes about a month to process. So how did so much raw data, riddled with serious errors and which potentially compromised vulnerable children, find its way into the public domain? And why was it in a form which just begged further questions?

For several months now the council has routinely published details of all its spending over £500. This information is on its website, and in a form which is relatively easy to understand. For example, we know that taxpayers spend nearly £15,000 a year on taxis for the council chairman because this charge crops up every month and is detailed as being for "civic functions." We are entitled to take a view as to whether or not this a sensible raid on the public purse, but there is no doubt about what it is for.

This routine, monthly disclosure of £500+ spending has attracted relatively little investigation, because the answers are already there. Why was the information released to the Daily Telegraph not published in similar form?

As usual, the cock-up theory of history has triumphed over the conspiracy theory. I wonder what this afternoon's meeting of the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee will do about it.

I think several Cornwall Council staff are on the verge of a severe sense of humour failure. So I am very grateful to everyone who has waded through boxloads of old receipts to get me these answers:

£3,000 for phone charges
This payment is the monthly mobile phone cost for 265 mobiles for the Cornwall Fire and Rescue service. These mobiles cover the entire Service including: the crews for 65 fire appliances, the officers in workshops (mechanics etc), Training Dept, Emergency Management Team, All Mobile Officers, all Station Managers and Senior Managers. This works out at approximately £11 per phone.

£1,080 for the Rick Stein Sea Food restaurant
This payment does not relate to a meal at the restaurant. It is part of the Future Job Fund project which is a Department for Work and Pensions European funded project to provide jobs for people in Cornwall. The Council makes payments to each partner based on the number of jobs they deliver and then reclaims 100% of these payments back from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Fish tank
This payment relates to a fish tank which was bought for one of our children's centres. The use of such equipment to help engage with young children, particularly children with complex needs, is recognised as good practice and is often used in hospitals and GP surgeries.

Computers/ hi fi and musical instruments
The items were purchased for use by schools, children's homes and respite centres and the youth service.

Silk ties
This payment relates to the purchase of 100 Cornwall Council ties which Councillors are now being invited to buy. They were designed and produced by a local company in Cornwall.

£1,029 paid to the One Eyed Cat restaurant -
This relates to a dinner (not a lunch) to mark the formal launch of the Unicreds project. This is a €2 million project looking at how different models of higher education can benefit regional economic development. It is a three year project funded by the EU involving partners from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Sweden and the UK. The cost of the meal, which was attended by 43 people, including representatives of all the project partners, was paid for by the Unicreds project and not by Cornwall Council.

24.11.10 Restaurant Ban Khun Mae £1,573- should be - £35.11
22.11.10 " £1,342 - should be £28.82
19.11.10 " £809 should be £17.97
All these three payments relate to an education related trip and have been calculated in the original currency. The costs of the trip were met by the British Council and not by the Council

17/11.10 Air South West £ 900 for three members of staff
The Council is currently in the process of implementing ERP, a business resource system that runs office processes such as finance, purchasing, payroll and human resources. To help with procuring the most appropriate system for the Council, a team of officers and Members made a number of " site visits" to view existing ERP systems which had been implemented by the companies which had been shortlisted through the procurement exercise. This payment relates to flights for a number of Council officers to visit a Council which had already implemented the system.

1.10.10 The London Eye £559.36
The payment relates to a visit by Cornwall's Youth Orchestra to London. The Council initially paid the cost of going on the London Eye but was then fully reimbursed by contributions from parents of the young people on the trip so there was no cost to the Council.

28.10.10 Return flight Bristol-Brussels for Carolyn Rule £560.50
This relates to a visit to Brussels by Carolyn Rule and Kevin Lavery for a series of post 2013 meetings involving transition regions with senior members of the EU.

8/7/10 Summons £2,145
This relates to payment for a court summons by the Council's Revenues and Benefits service for non payment of council tax . The Court requires payment for the cost of the summons at the time it is made.

26.10.10 Hotel - Jury's Inn, Manchester £1,248
This relates to accommodation for four people to attend the National Social Care Conference. The four were two officers --the Director of Adult Care and Support and the Head of Performance and Improvement, and two councillors - Armand Toms, the Cabinet Member for Adult Care and Support and Shirley Polmounter, who represented the Scrutiny Committee.

25.10.10 Rail travel for £1,023.20
This payment relates to rail travel for a Social care client visiting their children over a two months period

14.10.10 Trevor Doughty and two councillors @ Palace Hotel, £,1260 -
This payment relates to attendance at the National Adults and Youth conference in Manchester for Trevor Doughty and two councillors.

11.10.10 Hotel Barcelo, Malaga, £1,601.92 - project meetings with education authority? Who went and for how long? What project?
The flights to Malaga and hotel accommodation relate to a British Council funded educational trip by the Council's Adviser for Global Education and Internationalism. All the costs related to this project are met by the British Council.

11.10.10 £538.56 on the CleverBaggers
This payment relates to the purchase of 1,000 Sure Start branded bags for St Columb Children's Centre which were issued to families who register with the centre with information on Council activities

17.9.10 £6,873.75 on advertising in The Guardian
This relates to advertising for the Heartlands Board of Trustees. The costs were met from the Heartlands Project and not by the Council.

10.9.10 £599. 60 The Old Rectory motel. Who, why and for how long?
This payment relates to expenditure which was purchased on behalf of individual schools. The Council was then fully reimbursed by the schools involved and so there was no cost to the Council

10.9.10 2 x £500 Sainsbury's
This payment relates to the purchase of goods for the Lift project to help young vulnerable people learn living skills. The project is totally funded by external funding sources.

July 10 Rail warrant £987
This payment relates to a rail warrant for a Social care client visiting their children

6,9.10 Jury's Inn, Cork £2,190.38
This was for seven members of the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service Extrication team to take part in the World Extrication Challenge in which they qualified for the Worlds in New Zealand in 2012. The team raised sponsorship from Air South West to cover the baggage costs and from Flambards for other expenses and the Fire and Rescue Service paid for three nights accommodation for the team. The team works hard to secure sponsorship for each challenge. The extrication challenge this year is due to be held in London.

6.8.10 Travelodge £711.30
This payment relates a accommodation for a Social Care client visiting their children

30.7.10 Flight to Cambodia £758.18
This payment relates to the cost of a National Youth Volunteering Organisation trip for a group of young people taking part in an award ceremony. This was a totally grant funded trip and did not involve any Council funding.

Mobile phone socks £2,425.20 (Ribbonworks)
This payment relates to the purchase of mobile phone holders by the Council's Road Safety team to be used as part of a campaign to raise road user awareness among children and young people. This is an ongoing campaign which involves staff visiting schools and other events, such as the Royal Cornwall Show and the recent Emergency Services Awareness Day, where they give out the holders ( which have a road safety message printed on them) to children and young people.

14.6.10 Hotel rooms for ERP site visits - Ramada Bowden Hall - £600
The Council is currently in the process of implementing ERP, a business resource system that runs office processes such as finance, purchasing, payroll and human resources. It is expected to save the Council around £20 million over the next five years. To help with procuring the most appropriate system for the Council, a team of officers and Members made a number of "site visits" to view existing ERP systems which had been implemented by the companies which had been shortlisted through the procurement exercise. This payment relates to accommodation for one of the site visits.

14.6.10 Radison SAS £4,880
- this payment relates to the attendance at a meeting of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Meetings in Norway which was attended by Carolyn Rule and a member of the Council's Economic Development service. The costs shown have not been converted from the original currency of Norwegian Krone and the correct amount should be £546.56

12.6.10 Rail tickets for ERP site visits - £763
The Council is currently in the process of implementing ERP, a business resource system that runs office processes such as finance, purchasing, payroll and human resources. It is expected to save the Council around £20 million over the next five years. To help with procuring the most appropriate system for the Council, a team of officers and Members made a number of "site visits" to view existing ERP systems which had been implemented by the companies which had been shortlisted through the procurement exercise. This payment relates to rail travel for several officers and councillors over a two week period at a number of destinations across the country.

10.6.10 Hotel rooms for site visits in Solihull - Village Hotel £558
The Council is currently in the process of implementing ERP, a business resource system that runs office processes such as finance, purchasing, payroll and human resources. It is expected to save the Council around £20 million over the next five years. To help with procuring the most appropriate system for the Council, a team of officers and Members made a number of " site visits" to view existing ERP systems which had been implemented by the companies which had been shortlisted through the procurement exercise. This payment relates to accommodation at Birmingham which was the location of one of the site visits.

1.6.10 £33,090 Hotel Anna, MO
This payment relates to a meeting in Hungary about the Resgen project (Research Infrastructure to Sustainable Energy and Reduction of Co2 emissions) . This is a totally European funded project and so the costs were not met by the Council. The costs shown have not been converted from the original currency of Hungarian Forint and the correct amount is £105.10

28.5.10 £16,698 Hotel Matus
This payment relates to a meeting in Hungary about the Resgen project (Research Infrastructure to Sustainable Energy and Reduction of Co2 emissions ) . This is a totally European funded project and so the costs were not met by the Council. The costs shown have not been converted from the original currency of Hungarian Forint and the correct amount is £53.14

26.5.10 Taxi - more than £3,000 on return trip to Bolton
These charges relate to the annual cost of escorted transport for a Child in Care

12.5.10 Anti Fraud Subscription to Tameside for £3,425.64
This payment relates to the Council's Revenues and Benefits Service's annual subscription to the National Anti-Fraud Network. This is a not for profit organisation which is hosted by two local authorities - Tameside MBC and Brighton and Hove City Council which works with local authorities to provide support, advice and information on managing public funds and assets effectively. As of December 2010 82% of local authorities (335) were members.

5.5.10 Kevin Lavery's personal training at Omni Hotel, Berkshire £1,359.94
This relates to accommodation for the training Kevin Lavery attended in New York last year. The fee and expenses were paid for by the Council. His participation was part of his personal development and was properly approved. It was, and remains the only training Kevin has undertaken since joining Cornwall Council. This was extensively covered by the media at the time.

23.3.10 £4,930 on Specsavers Eye Care vouchers
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 allow new or existing users of display screen equipment (DSE) to request an eye and eyesight test by a qualified Ophthalmic Optician at the expense of the employer. If this test shows that special glasses (other than those normally worn by the user) are required for use with DSE, then the employer must provide them. To control the cost and manner in which the Council complies with this requirement, the Council has entered into an arrangement with a single provider - Specsavers. The spending identified relates directly to the operation of this scheme which ensures that the Council complies with the relevant health and safety legislation

8.3.10 Premier Inn £776
This payment relates to expenditure which was purchased on behalf of individual schools. The Council was then fully reimbursed by the schools involved and so there was no cost to the Council

25.2.10 Malaga - flights and hotels
The flights to Malaga and hotel accommodation relate to a British Council funded educational trip by the Council's Adviser for Global Education and Internationalism. All the costs related to this project are met by the British Council.

18.2.10 Mitsuta Yangumen £4,960 restaurant
This should have been £37. This payment relates to an education related trip and has been calculated in the original currency. The costs of the trip were met by the British Council and not by Cornwall Council

16.2.10 Daniels restaurant £8,510
this should have been £62.86
This payment relates to an education related trip and has been calculated in the original currency. The costs of the trip were met by the British Council and not by the Council

11.2.10 £536.50 Prince Rupert Hotel
This payment relates to expenditure which was purchased on behalf of individual schools. The Council was then fully reimbursed by the schools involved and so there was no cost to the Council

28.1.10 V.Talent Trip to London for 14 people - what's this? £2,156 on AirSouth West
This payment relates to flights for the young people travelling to London to take part in an awards ceremony for V project which is run by the National Youth Volunteering Organisation. This project is totally grant funded and, therefore, does not involve any Council funding.

14.1.10 Carolyn Rule and Council officer fly to Brussels for £1,223.80
This payment relates to attendance at a meeting about the European Regions of Culture. The Council representatives met with Commissioner Ann Branch, Head of the Culture Unit DG Culture and Education. All the costs were met from European funding

20.11.09 Fines - £1,317 - 3241
This payment relates to expenditure which was purchased on behalf of individual schools. The Council was then fully reimbursed by the schools involved and so there was no cost to the Council

16.11.09 The White Hart £543
This payment was for temporary accommodation for a family (husband, wife and four children) as a result of a fire.

12.9.09 Two nights accommodation Alveston House Hotel
This was accommodation for three members of staff to attend a forensic & security seminar. The hotel was £90 per night and they each stayed for 2 nights.

20.10.09 £930.25 Queens Hotel
This payment relates to expenditure which was purchased on behalf of individual schools. The Council was then fully reimbursed by the schools involved and so there was no cost to the Council

24.9.09 £1, 104 Golf Week Sponsorship
The payment relates to a marketing exercise carried out by the Council's Newquay Airport Development Team which focused on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) event which attracted golfers and spectators from all over the country. The team worked with Air Southwest and Flybe on this project which included producing a route map to identify major golf clubs throughout the country and the closest airport to which Newquay served to increase awareness. This was displayed at the event and handed out to all golfers/spectators. The costs of the sponsorship were charged back from each airline's joint funded marketing budget.

23.10.08 Beer mats £1,500
Unfortunately this payment was made by the former Cornwall County Council and not by Cornwall Council and it has not so far proved possible to identify which service was responsible for making the payment.

26.6.08 Hard To Find DJ equipment £2,779
This payment relates to the purchase of equipment by the Adult Education Service to set up a new DJ mixing course at the Falmouth Adult Education Centre. The course was aimed at students who hoped to attend Falmouth University to study for a degree in media. The costs of setting up this course were met from a variety of external sources and not from Cornwall Council.

6 3 09 £750 at the Sailors Arms
This payment relates to an event run by the Youth Service as part of their 'Positive Activities for Young People' project. It was funded through external grants and not by the Council

There is a small number of questions outstanding but I'm fairly sure they will also turn out to put the council in the clear. I suspect that the £1,500 on beermats will be for those like the one I have in front of me. It's for the Cornish Language Partnership - funded mainly by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Congratulations to Cornwall Councillor Andrew Wallis for being first to get this answer:

"This payment relates to an event run by the Youth Service as part of their 'Positive Activities for Young People' project. It was funded through external grants and not by the Council."

Cornwall Council has just , following Saturday's Daily Telegraph revelations. One futher question bound to be asked is how much it is costing, in terms of officer time, to explain hundreds of individual spending decisions over the past three years. I wonder if this is what Eric Pickles had in mind when he declared that publication of all spending decisions over £500 was the best way to make councils more responsible.

St Dennis Working Men's Club looks like the place to be on Friday 10th June, for a public meeting about what happens next following the government's approval of Cornwall's huge waste incinerator project. Council leader Alec Robertson, who lobbied Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in favour of the scheme despite having earlier declared himself opposed to it, will be there. So will Cabinet colleagues Julian German (waste management), Graeme Hicks (transport) and Mark Kaczmarek (planning). Starts 7pm.

Medical opinion seems to be edging towards the idea that my recent back injury was probably not caused by suddenly reaching for a kettle after all, but was instead down to my slovenly and lazy habit of thrusting keys, coins, wallet and phone into the back pocket of my trousers. A few months ago I bought a new pair, attracted by the very large "cargo" pockets, and have unwittingly been sitting at a computer or steering wheel at an unnatural angle. The blinding flash of pain caused by my ungainly lunge in the kitchen was, apparently, simply the last straw. In any event recovery now seems to be well on track.