Reading Tony’s post regarding the minutes of Belfast City Council meetings made me curious about my own local Council. The Council website contains minutes for the Council meetings from February 2001 until September 2005 in Word format.

I decided to read through some of the more recent minutes to get some idea as to what the Council is about. I was really not expecting Council meetings to be opened with a scripture reading and prayer. The meeting on 1st August 2005 even had a short sermon. Why on earth would there be a sermon at the start of a Council meeting?

I was also surprised at some of the colourful language used to describe the Planning Service. Phrases like “monumental blunders”, and “the Planning process was a shambles and lurching from one crisis to another”. I’m going to have to read some more of these things as I still don’t have a clue what the Council is about – but just not tonight.