After a slow start and eating my breakfast alone, I dressed in my black tie and suit and then drove down to St James’s Church for the funeral of Frank Hall. Peter Lewis, the vicar, conducted a nice service and read the text of my obituary as a tribute. Later, to The Priory Centre for the St Neots Museum Launch, which went very well, and I then rushed back for tonight’s Paxton planning meeting with HDC’s planning policy chief, Richard Probyn, who got a right grilling over his proposals in line with my Parish Council briefing.
The Tories being castigated for their political dogma and intransigence as opinion polls show them still 13% behind Labour and the government backs down and agrees to talks with the ambulance unions without preconditions after controllers threatened to route calls to Ambulancemen and away from the police and army black legs because of public safety
The start of a long day began slowly for me as I was late to the breakfast table. I had French toast on my own, tended the fish and then did some work at my desk. Before 11am, I dressed in my black tie and suit and then drove down to St James’s Church for the funeral of Frank Hall. It was a nice sunny day, but quite cold, and the electricity supply had been off in the area for Village Hall work. The blessing was it was returned for the service and, although Frank was the last of the family and had no relatives, the church quite full of friends. Peter Lewis, the vicar, conducted a nice service. “All things bright and beautiful” was the recorded music and the use the text of my obituary as a tribute and he said it well as I could not have said because of the emotion. It was nevertheless a sad situation and, as I saw him away in the hearse, I remembered the last time I had stopped and chatted with him within sight of that Jubilee Tree.
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Home to a rushed salad lunch and time to prepare and work on my latest response to the District Plans for Little Paxton ahead of tonight’s meeting. I circulated copies of this to key Parish Council members and then quickly got changed and drove on to The Priory Centre and the St Neots Museum Launch. My preparations were a success and it was well attended with local political and civic personalities, reasonably by the press and outstandingly-so by members of the public. We made two presentations with me asking for the money and it was just a very successful event – even though the question of the site had not been settled.
I rushed back for tonight’s Paxton planning meeting. Richard Probyn, the HDC’s planning policy chief, was attending and got a right grilling over his proposals but was man enough to come and account for them. The meeting took my documents lead on all the main points and resolved to oppose further developments and forego any of the suggested community planning gains. I felt that today had been a very successful if strenuous one.
Later, I sat and watched the TV news and current affairs programmes in which the Tories being castigated for their political dogma and intransigence. Opinion polls show them still 13% behind Labour. The main story is of the government backing down and agreeing to talks with the ambulance unions without preconditions which was accepted in the talks starts tomorrow. This was brought on by the ambulanceman banning all non-emergency calls and by the controller threatening to route calls to Ambulancemen and away from the police and army black legs because of public safety. More controversial government proposals today to wind down Council Community care to introduce Student Loans instead of increasing grants which is a terrible disincentive to further education.