Every now and then I have a day more or less totally given over to district council and parish work, and last Thursday was one of them…0715 Up and around Whittlesford delivering leaflets containing the reports for the Parish Council annual meeting the following evening. Nice and peaceful across the Recreation Ground at this time of the morning
0815 Quick bowl of shreddies and granola (home-made, thank you very much) then off to Heathfield to meet up with some residents complaining about the numbers of cars parked up and being repaired. As I leave the house the phone rings. A fellow parish councillor asking for details about street naming, which is a district council task. It is important in this case to get this right as we want to name a new road in Whittlesford after the village lady whose generous will has made possible the affordable housing being built as part of the development.
0945 After the Heathfield meeting (of which more later) I arrive at South Cambs offices at Camborne. I’m chairing the climate change working group at ten, but I just have time to check with one of the lawyers at the council about a planning application that has gone to appeal. Thriplow Parish Council want to write to the planning inspector and I need to to get some details. Helpful quick word and then in to the climate change meeting at ten. We work through the draft of an action plan for the next three years, setting out how the council will support local people, and local businesses, make sustainability work, and in particular try to help people make savings by being more energy conscious. We also go through some ideas by two of our working group on how the council’s own buildings rate in terms of sustainability and how we can put our own house in order.
1230 Working lunch with a group of officers and councillors to go through options for improving the council’s customer contact centre. Part of the discussion about social networking methods as a means of delivering customer service. Interestingly, I already get text message reminders about appointments from both my doctor and dentist.
2.00 Finish the customer session and check a numbers of points with the district’s planning team so that I am ready for the parish council meeting – there is growing concern about the scrapyard operating at the end of Station Road in Whittlesford. Pass on the concerns about parking in Heathfield to the Planning Enforcement Officer. He has visited the area once about this, but perhaps another visit at a different time may be needed.
3.00 Leave Camborne and decompress, but I’ve got to be back in a few hour’s time for a group meeting of councillors.
8.30 Collect one of my boys from Whittlesford Station. As I’m waiting I notice that the phone box has been vandalized. After all the policy and strategy thinking I’ve been doing earlier today, I reckon there is still the old-fashioned need to make sure services are delivered properly and things get sorted out. So we need to get BT to do the repairs, and hope that the rail station is not going through another of the bouts of vandalism that have impacted it and its users in the past.
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