Council speech

Spoken twice in two meetings! Its almost becoming a habit.
The council meeting lasted until 9pm, with a 2pm start. The start was delayed by the chamber being "stormed" by some residents from Lee Bank supporting an Asda planning application. I don't mind a bit of direct action, but its important that once you're in "occupation", you've got to leave someone outside to spread your message effectively.
The meeting dragged on because it had a very full agenda. Too much in my opinion, and debates at the end were farcicle, in fact they weren't debates as we moved straight to votes to even allow a 9pm finish.
One of the items was the Local Transport Plan (local being the West Midlands!). Its pretty much a bidding document to central government to leverage capital funding, which is dependent on meeting certain targets. I spoke on the lack of references to cycling, and the neglible target of a 1% increase over 7 years, throwing in some bits about cyclists being a harrassed minority on the roads.