This morning started with a meeting of all the chairs of scrutiny committees along with some other members to ensure a political balance, discussing the topics which are being scrutinised at present and how they're progressing. It was an opportunity to get home the message to all political groups that some of the recommendations of the Environment committee will not be universally popular and that officers will need support in implementing them.

Then on to an important but very different meeting - the Fairtrade Borough Group. This was the first meeting since we had our celebrations of achieving Fairtrade status and it was good to see a number of new people come along, all with different skills and interests to bring to the pot. We decided that we will have enough help to be able to man a stall at two events in November and to serve refreshments at one in early December, so great progress there. We also decided to organise a Fairtrade Winetasting event in January next year, so those people interested in wine tasting should watch out for tickets going on sale. I felt as though we made lots of progress and it was a very worthwhile meeting.

Once home, I had the task of recording a brief interview for the local BBC radio station on the subject of the leadership - inevitably wanting me to say where my preference would lie but I hope I answered honestly and clearly - I'm not going to try to influence other members by having my preference broadcast across the whole of the Tees Valley.