Council staff face a long day at the polling stations today. Its a 7:00am – 10:00pm shift for many. Later some will be helping to count votes. A declaration of a result may not come until 3:00am or even later.

So it is not surprising that the agenda for the Council meeting taking place on 19th December is, shall we say, a little thin.

There are virtually no reports attached to the agenda. Notices of motion are not published (other than the general topic heading) and executive member reports are missing.

Perhaps most difficult to explain may be a missing report for the remuneration panel. This independent body recommends how much Councillors should be paid. Its recommendations are often controversial. The report must already be available so someone must have taken a decision not to publish it.

There are two possible explanations for the missing papers.

The first is that staff and Councillors have been overwhelmed by the election workload. In which case someone may ask why the Council meeting was not postponed..

The second could be that the Council has decided that publishing the above reports could have been viewed as conflicting with the “Purdah” period. “Purdah” regulations prevent local authorities, and government departments, from publishing anything that might influence an election result.

If the explanation is the latter the the authority would be wise to ensure that the reports are published tomorrow.

It must give taxpayers a reasonable time to assess what is being proposed.

The reason for the absence of the background papers should have been n clearly stated on the agenda

& it really is time for that the Council got round to appointing a new Chief Executive!