I've been too busy trying to get my self assessment return in by yesterday's deadline to blog about Hutton. Until now.

I'm not at least surprised by the verdict and I predicted as much on my PR blog when Hutton first started sitting. It was always going to vindicate both Blair and Campbell, simply because they actually hadn't done anything wrong. I am rather surprised that Geoff Hoon didn't face some mild criticism, but I'll trust Hutton on this as he's studied the evidence in depth and I've merely dipped in.

I do have some concern about how the BBC is taking all of the flak. The problem I have is that it isn't just the BBC at fault. The BBC is actually still one of the most reputable and trustworthy media sources, it's just that the bar is now set so low.

In the Commons Michael Howard said something like "The BBC's job, like mine, is to hold the government to account". Well actually, no Michael, it isn't. The BBC's job is to report fairly and accurately. It is the opposition's job to hold the government to account, but your Tories are in such disarray that you couldn't hold a whelk stall to account.

However, perhaps because of the Tories incompetence, most of the media now appears to think that it's job is holding the government to account. That explains the inflated egos of especially the Today programme.

We urgently need to get back to high quality, fair and rigorous journalism and reporting. Investigative reporting is a vital for a healthy news media, but to preserve it's integrity it must be accurate and fair.

It's been a busy week again. Quite a lot of council stuff and the added pressure of needing to finish my tax return by the 31 Jan.

On Wednesday I had nearly a full day of council related stuff. I spent all morning at Leeds South Homes mainly meeting local tenants to talk about ideas for a new tenant participation structure. It is very important that this links in with the council's new area management structure that starts later this year.

What we don't want is a plethora of different consultative fora, run by different organisations, to look at different issues, yet attended by the same few people. The key to success is looking at new ways of involving local tenants and residents in the decisions that effect their community, but accepting that times have changed and people no longer want to spend their evenings in drafty community centres.

In the late afternoon it was back to Leeds South Homes for a full board meeting. Perhaps because of the weather it was the worst attended we've had since the ALMO started. I had to leave early to chair a CIT meeting. But before I left I made a couple of contributions on important issues. I can't blog about the details because they were in a part of the meeting that was 'below the line', because they concerned detailed financial matters.

That evening's Hunslet and Middleton Community Involvement Team was also poorly attended but we had a lively discussion about a number of issues.

One of these was about community wardens and Police Community Support Officers. We had a vigorous debate about which was best for our community. My opinion, and the final decision of the meeting, is that both have their strengths and and weaknesses so we therefore need a combination of the two.

On Saturday I spent a couple of hours doing some campaign work. On the phone to potential voters to help assess target areas for the local elections.

Next week I've got a number of issues to deal with:

1) A visit to the covered market in Leeds to see what can be done to continue improving it for both residents and traders.

2) Attending two community associations - Manor Farms on Monday and Westwoods on Thursday.

3) My first meeting with the newly appointed area manager for south Leeds.

4) A full day of media training for councillors. I'm looking forward to this as it will be interesting to be a participant. Normally I'm organising and running media training course for the clients of my PR company NetworxPR.

5) A Lead Member meeting to tackle ongoing customer service and communications issues.

Next week also sees the Local Environmental Action Programme coming back to Middleton to tackle street cleansing issues. I'm sure that they'll have learnt many lessons since the first week, which although very good wasn't as good as we'd been led to expect.

I've now added Colin Challen MP's new website to the list of political blogs. Although now I've had a chance to take a proper look at the site I don't think it's finished. Surprisingly it doesn't have any links to either local Labour Party sites - either like mine in his constituency or Leeds wide like the Leeds Labour Group. or for neighbouring Leeds MPs or the Yorkshire and Humber MEPs.

As nearly all of the others include links, I'm sure this is an oversight that Colin will be rectifying soon.

Excellent meeting of the management committee of the Manor Farm Community Association last night. It's great to see how this new group is getting off the ground with some really keen and enthusiastic people.

They are now planning an Easter Party and I've offered to help out with some councillor's MICE money to help pay for it. One of the problems they are looking at tackling is the lack of buses on the estate. I'm going to make sure that Metro (the public transport regulator in West Yorkshire) attends a future meeting.

Quietly, and without great fanfare, the new Leeds City Council website has been launched. I've had some input as the Lead Member for Communications. It's a great improvement over the old site and is now 'Bobby Triple A' compliant. This basically means it is very accessible for people of all abilities.

We are interested in feedback on the new site so please let me have your comments - either here or by email.

Looking at my diary I see that next week hardly has any council related activities or meetings. Looking at my in-tray that is a relief. I have a massive stack of case work to get through. I must have about 20-30 different cases then need following up - some are part way through and others are new.

Unlike MPs, councillors aren't full-time. Also unlike MPs, we don't have a dedicated office with workers to help with our case work. We all try to be as helpful as possible to constituents with problems, but we have to fit it in to all the other council related work we have to do, as well as having jobs to earn a living, and some time to spend with our family and friends.

So my next week is dedicated to clearing up the backlog of case work.