Friday 22 October

The end of Local Democracy Week ... end of experiment?
This afternoon met Linda Forbes (Warwick & Leamington Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate) at Leamington Station. She was accompanied by John (Lord!) Thurso MP (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) who is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Spokesperson for Transport. John had arrived by train to Warwick Parkway earlier in the day and then Linda had taken him to see various parts of the constituency, such as Longbridge Island and Warwick town centre. We were joined at the station by Cllr Bill Gifford (Leamington Milverton) and Dave Manuel, our candidate for the Warwick South by-election. We had an extremely interesting tour of the station and John Thurso spoke for some time with various employees. Particular thanks go to Chris Barber of Chiltern Trains and to her staff.

From the station we walked to the Town Hall, via the Pump Rooms which John was interested to see, as he had visited them in 1996 in a very different capacity ... He had been retained to make an assessment of the business case for the conversion of the premises to a health/fitness club! At the Town Hall we had tea as guests of the Chair of Warwick District Council, Cllr Chris Davis and his wife Val who was the first Liberal on Warwick District Council 30 years ago. John Thurso then came back to my home until it was time to go the Angel Hotel for our constituency dinner. It was an excellent meal and John's speech was entertaining and inspiring. He really is a most interesting and charming man. I'm sure that all those who were present would wish to join me in thanking him for his visit. He travelled back to London by train after the meal and would not have arrived home until at least 1.30 a.m.

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

Tuesday evening ...... Economic Scrutiny Committee (District Council) at Leamington Town Hall.

Wednesday evening ...... Skittles at Leamington Cricket Club. Rent-a-Mob soundly beaten again ... This time by The Zimmers!

Thursday ...... Seminar at Shire Hall "Emergency Planning and the Civil Contingencies Bill"
Evening ...... Cultural & Community Committee (Town Council) at the Town Hall.

Monday 18th October

In the morning I Chaired the Regulatory Committee. Just one item on the Agenda ... a Public Entertainment License for a pub in Leamington. The license was refused.

6 p.m. District Group Meeting at the Town Hall (pre. Scrutiny meeting tomorrow)

Saturday 16th

Spent 2 and a half hours in the morning delivering FOCUS (Lib Dem newsletter) not in my ward but in Warwick South on behalf of our excellent candidate David Manuel. We have a By-Election there on November 4th because the former tory incumbent has moved away to progress his political career elsewhere. Was lucky and got my rounds finished just before the rain.

The rest of the day ... playing in the kitchen. Roger's parents are coming for a meal tomorrow. Will be making a fish pie ... monkfish, haddock, prawns, bacon, celery etc. etc. in a white wine sauce topped with mashed potato and an amaretti apple tart. I didn't even get to the end of the week without mentioning food (see yesterday) and here I go again! Sorry. Must go ... got to skin a fish!

Friday 15th

Meeting-free day! Was supposed to have one but it was cancelled (Integrated Risk Management Panel for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service.) Good opportunity to catch up on things around the house .

In the evening went to some friends for a "Raclette" evening. (He's Swiss!) For those who don't know, basically it's melted cheese. The good thing about it is that you have to drink lots of white wine with it .... The cheese was quite nice too!

Thursday 14th

In the morning did some reading for meetings next week.

County Group meeting due to start at 4 p.m. or on the rising of Cabinet. Arrived in Shire Hall at about 3.15. and sat in at the final stages of Cabinet, after which the three Web-Loggers who are taking part in this experiment ... myself, Bob Stevens (Con) and Tim Naylor (Lab) had a photo-call for the press release.
Our Group meeting began at 4 p.m. promptly and finished at about 6.30.

Wednesday 13th

Am writing this on Thursday. Didn't have time yesterday. Did a little casework in the morning then meeting os the day consisted of:
Best Value Revue of Traffic Management, this with my Spokesperson for Transport, Environment & Rural Affairs head on and held in Warwick. Other Members present were the portfolio holder on the Cabinet and the Chair of the relevant Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
This was followed with a slight change of officers for a briefing on major schemes.

In the evening attended Full Council at the District in Leamington Town Hall. It lasted for approximately 3 and half hours but really could easily have been completed in half that time and if there had not been a representative from the Press in the Chamber, it almost certainly would have! Tedious! Sometimes "politics" do get unnecessarily in the way! Our chief officers had to sit through the whole farce and I really felt for them.

When I had escaped from the Town Hall, I headed for Leamington Cricket Club. (What an amazing year they have had!) This is the first week of the club's winter skittles league and the first time that I or my team had played. My team (Rent-a-Mob) had started without me because I was so late and our fixture was supposed to begin at 8.30 (against Flavels). Other teams kicked off at 7.30 and 9.30 (actually 10.00 by the time they started) It was a good evening and quite therapeutic to hurl (sorry ... bowl) the balls at the heavy wooden skittles. It allowed me to get rid of some of my pent-up exasperation which had accrued during the meeting at the Town Hall!

As well as catching up on all the latest with members of my team, I chatted to Neela Mann who is on the committee (Secretary? Scorer etc.) Neela came to Leamington's twin town in Holland, Heemstede a couple of weeks ago and has subsequently arranged for a twinning visit for the young cricketers and also a separate visit for an adult team. Also, got chatting to a member of Flavel's team who told me that he played cricket in Heemstede in 1953! Amazing!

Tuesday

Meeting at Leamington Town Hall in the morning. (I Chair the Regulatory Committee on the District Council). Main item on the Agenda was a Public Entertainment License for a pub in Kenilworth. That alone took two hours and one new-ish member to the committee was unhappy that it took so long but there were objectors to the license and two of them were councillors ... Say no more! No, to be fair, it wasn't them ... it's just the procedure, it does take time. The new Licensing Bill is looming so it will be interesting to see how things will change. With the large number of applications which we will be receiving, it's possible that the committee may have to be first increased in size and then split into smaller groups.
At the moment we are 9 but we may become 15 (5 x 3) ... Watch this space!

When I got home I had only had a couple of 'phone calls but one of them needed a fairly immediate response (that's the way I normally work anyway, regardless of urgency ... otherwise it might not get done!) A disabled person is having problems in his electric scooter negotiating pavements/overgrown hedges/lack of dropped kerbs. I went to meet him and walked behind him as he made his way into town. Not good! Got to the bottom of the hill when the heavens opened ... by the time I got back to my car I was just a little damp! (Gave the photographer from the local weekly a lift back up the hill ... the constituent had also telephoned them.)

Home for long enough to dry out then off to Warwick for a meeting of Warwickshire Sustainability Commission. Very interesting. Impressed by the knowledge and commitment of members. Meeting punctuated by the sound of a brass band! Small one! We were meeting in the large committee room (Shire Hall) and downstairs, over the balcony, people were gathering in the ante-chamber prior to a presentation to employees who had completed 25 years hard labour. When our meeting finished and I made my way downstairs on the way home, I was really pleased when a couple who were sitting quietly in the corner called to me. They're not constituents neither do I know them because of the fact that one is employed by the County Council but because of other voluntary work that they do. It was particularly good to feel that someone like this is being recognised ... and I would not have known about it if I had just not happened to be walking down the stairs at the same time that the group were about to move from the ante-chamber into the chamber. This made my day. Good night.