LAST week saw all Cornwall councillors summoned to Truro for full council, an opportunity to vote on important decisions, and the chance to meet colleagues – from all parties and all corners of the Duchy – in the flesh.

First came chair’s announcements, including reporting on important events he attended as figure head for the council, such as meeting Queen Camilla when she visited ShelterBox and the Cornwall Air Ambulance.

Next the leader, Leigh Frost, informed us he was engaging with ministers on national policies and funding, as well as business leaders and representatives of Cornwall wide organisations who have an important role in making Cornwall a better place to live.

Questions to the council followed, one from Armand Toms, who retired from the council in May. He asked why central Cornwall was still getting more funding than East or West Cornwall, in particular the Mid Cornwall Metro, which links Newquay and Falmouth, with improvements to stations in between.

Whilst I am aware of many projects in South East Cornwall which have had funding, there is more to be done, and I’ll continue his work to make sure we get the funding we need.

Then came a series of motions to the council from members, the first of which encouraged us to promote ‘Clean Cornwall’. This motion had cross party support, as did the next motion, ‘Works to End the Sewage Scandal’, on which I spoke as seconder.

South West Water has inherited an obsolete Victorian system, with roof and highway water going into combined foul water sewers. They are expected to absorb costs of connections and increased capacity for new large estates. The government is imposing large housing targets on Cornwall, this despite already having a system that is struggling to cope.

I argued that, with a new chief executive at SWW and a new administration running Cornwall council, we must reset our relationship with SWW and encourage them to prioritise customers and environment over shareholders.

After we agreed several recommendations about internal governance of the council, we had questions from members to cabinet portfolio holders.

One was to Hilary Frank, re the need to speed up the assessment of educational health and care plans, legal documents designed to set out the support needs of those with special needs or disabilities aged 0-25 years. Whilst she stated the team are currently only resolving 45 per cent of cases within government guidelines, she is determined to improve that and strive for 100 per cent.

Another member asked if we can reinstate routine drain cleaning, which saved me from asking the same question!

Dan Rogerson, transport portfolio holder, stated he had already asked officers to review this, but needed to be mindful of budget implications. Meanwhile, Cllr Adrian Parsons had asked a question designed to reassure tenants that there is no intention to sell off county farms, but that was deferred to the relevant committee as there is currently a review of the farm strategy implementation.

So, whilst there were no controversial decisions, it was an informative day with time well spent.