For many months now, my Conservative Group has been warning that politically motivated delays to implementing Extra Care plans could lead to disaster. Extra Care was a vision that the 2009-13 Administration had brought on speedily, and was to give hundreds of older people in Derbyshire independence and dignity in an affordable and innovative way. I am disappointed, but not surprised - given how our warnings were ignored - that the contract between Derbyshire County Council and housing provider Housing 21 is now being terminated. Bad news too for the Derbyshire economy, as the whole Extra Care package represented many, many millions of pounds of investment into our economy and would have created and supported large numbers of local jobs. The Cabinet Report reads that this termination “…provides the Council with an opportunity to shape the future…”. For those of you who do not speak “local government” that means “We have missed a huge opportunity and now we do not know what to do.”