After the expected very cold night, as I made my final preparations for Norfolk, I mourned the demise of the conservatory ladybirds, overwhelmed by the aphids, and then completed my financial planning and consequent actions before calling Jack to find the Butterfields nicely settled in Heronshaw.
Then a call from the Labour leader on the District Council, Jim Lomax, after their Labour Group meeting last night, pleased that the election nomination lists had closed as a good anti-Tory line-up; giving both of our parties the best election prospects. A disappointing District Planning meeting in the evening after my campaigns for Paxton and Bury.
Reagan and Gorbachev agree to meet in May for a second summit, despite American concern over the situation in Lithuania and the first elections take place in East Germany. Leaders of Labour's 20 charge-capped councils are taking legal action to try to overturn the government's decision on the grounds of political bias.
I was tired when I went to bed last night and the bed was cold and so Diana and I snuggled together for warmth. I was a bit slow to get up this morning as Della came into my bedroom and I played with her there. I tended the plants and fish in my conservatory. I am getting trouble with sediment in the pond and may soon have to try to find a way of vacuuming it out. No sign of the Ladybirds that I introduced, and I believe that they must have either died or fled as the aphids are coming back again. The morning mail and papers and, with it, plenty of financial transactions to do which took a while. Then Di went into town to send off my BES application by DataPost, pay in lots of children’s' trust income cheques, and collect Deborah from her friend's house where she has been staying.
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I found out about Freda's arrival yesterday by telephoning Jack this morning and then let Mum know and she was pleased to hear that everything was all right. I had a call from the Labour leader on the District Council, Jim Lomax, after their Labour Group meeting last night. He was pleased about the way in which the election nomination lists had closed as a good anti-Tory line-up and felt optimistic about the election itself. In particular, it gives them a real chance of winning Huntingdon North and Farcet and us of Offords and Bury, which would have been very difficult otherwise. Tally-Ho!
Tonight, I went again to the Planning Committee meeting on the District Plan and sat there all evening hoping to speak on Little Paxton. I was eventually upset to find that the Chairman did not call me, and my efforts were therefore wasted to a large extent. The good news was the committee overturning the previous recommendation of the working party and voting for the Ramsey By-pass to go to the east of Ramsey, so as not to affect Bury so much. It was particularly the more party-political Tories that voted that way which was a sure sign that the efforts of Carole Crompton, her colleagues and I have been worrying the Tory Group and they could otherwise see themselves losing this May's local election if they had not acted to reflect residents' views! Before going to this meeting, I reacted quickly to the news the previous night that the move was gaining ground to make permanent the planning permission for the Paxton Pits stone-coating plant. The Parish Council had not previously objected, and I therefore had to aware the local residents to the danger of the move succeeding so that they could make their views known. I typed up letters to the Parish Councillors, asking for them to re-consider; then used a past name-and-address file to individually-address letters to the local families affected by the noise and disturbance of the lorries on the gravel pit road. Then I got out my bicycle and delivered all these letters by hand, before going to the meeting at Pathfinder House!
Elsewhere, the news is of Reagan and Gorbachev agreeing to meet in May for a second summit, despite American concern over the situation in Lithuania. In East Germany, Lothar de Maizière (head of the Christian Democrats - CDU) has been asked to form a parliamentary government after the first-ever election there and is expected to agree terms for a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD). Leaders of Labour's 20 charge-capped councils are taking legal action to try to overturn the government's decision on the grounds of political bias.