Once again Chipper doesn't let his lack of knowledge get in the way of his thoughts. Labour don't control CEC, and never have done. The largest party has always been the Conservatives who originally had an outright majority - and look how many police investigations came from that period. But since 2019 they haven't been large enough to have a majority. So control lies with the Independent Group (yes, I know, it's a contradiction in terms) who are the third biggest and they choose to support Labour rather than the Conservatives. If the Conservatives had put forward policies that the Independent Group prefered then the Conservative leader would be leader of the council. The people who voted for an Independent Group candidate in 2023 knew what was likely to happen because of what happened in 2019, so you can't say it's not democratic. But by the time of the 2027 election it's unlikely that the Conservatives will be able to win a raffle. Stand by for the comedy of a Reform controlled council, where their councillors fail to turn up to vote for flagship policies, so the opposition wins the vote (like Worcestershire), or where the national party overules local flagship policies and leaves their councillors looking like lemons (like Lancashire). Or where they fall out within months, and half get thrown out of the national party and set up an alternative version of Reform (like Kent).

"Managing vacancies" is not just how much the permanent staff get paid. Since the dark days of the Jones junta, CEC has had big problems recruiting qualified staff to senior positions (qualifications which have legal reasons). So they end up paying eye watering amounts to "short term" contractors who stay for long periods - and there are about a dozen of those according to the list that anyone can look at on the CEC Website. But why would anyone with qualifications want a full time job in a council when they can get paid more in a private company, and won't be subject to ill informed abuse by know nothings like this. This is why controversial planning applications get through, the best people are working for the developers!

An Eric doesn't even seem to know what a councillor is. Councillors are elected by the people who bother to go and vote, and in some cases helped in by those who can't be bothered to vote. No council decides on the matter, it's laid down in law when elections will be - and the number of wards and councillors is set under law by the Electoral Commission.

My proposal is that we do away with councillors being elected. They should be chosen like a jury. And like jury service if you don't attend you would get prosecuted. It's only about 9 hours work a week once you've dealt with all the messages from people at all hours of the day, half of which are from clowns who can't use a free phone number to speak to staff directly - which is why I refused to stand in an election when I was asked.

Are these proposals acceptable by Conservative,only Labour might lose control over Cec next election.

"managing vacancies when people leave or retire" - however, when it comes to replacing a Councillor who leaves or retires ....
"ensuring that the full cost of providing those services is covered by the fees we charge" - does this include the coffee and biscuits at the Council meetings?
"Saving around £8.3 million by managing vacancies" - at an average of £50,000 per job, that's 166 jobs lost, roughly 3% of the workforce.
Fasten your seatbelts, people!