New Council Cabinet for Coventry

Ken Taylor (Con-Earlsdon), as leader of the council, has announced his cabinet colleagues for the next year.

What's interesting is that Gary Ridley (Con-Sherbourne) has been reshuffled from "Culture, Leisure and Libraries" into a newly created portfolio, with the grand title of "Climate Change, Housing and Sustainability."

Ridley will be responsible for Agenda 21, the council's climate change strategy (once it's announced), "carbon footprint," conservation, "energy conservation and renewal," green travel, the housing strategy, the Nottingham Declaration and sustainability.

Energy renewal? I guess they mean renewable energy. Unless he's found a way to reverse entropy.

My first reaction was that it's a good move.

The second reaction was that it excludes community economic development, value for money, procurement and transport.

My third take on it was that you need some way for the other 7-8 portfolios to need to run each and every decision (like Gordon Brown's Comprehensive Spending Review process) through Ridley, to make sure that their activities fit into a coherent climate change strategy and council-wide monitoring of the carbon footprint.