Well, it really has been a quieter time. Marvellous!
On the first week, I did a couple of press interviews – Radio Cumbria on the Cumbria County Council’s troubles with planning in their Minerals and Waste authority role. Apparently, they had to submit an improvement plan after their handling of the incinerator application at Kingmoor in Carlisle, and that improvement plan whilst almost completed a year ago has not been updated since then. So my role was merely to point out how important it is to have everything ready to hand over on April 1st because the job of Cumberland’s planning team – officers and councillors - will be hard enough assimilating all the various local plans without being in doubt as to whether everything is as it should be.
My second one was more exciting. I was interviewed and photographed for an article on the coal mine in Le Monde (a major French newspaper). I haven’t seen if it was used, though, so it may have been spiked!
Last week, having got impatient to get out on my new electric bike, I foolishly went out while it was still icy and promptly fell off causing major bruising from hip to knee and a cut arm. However, I do feel extremely fortunate that it wasn’t much worse. And the bike was unharmed, thank goodness.
It did mean I felt much more cautious about going out in the car on icy roads and promptly sent my apologies to Parish Council meetings the following day. However, I was interested to see what the Above Derwent Parish Council had decided on the issue of Ullock Moss car park, which the Green Party opposed. On checking the draft minutes I see that they have maintained a neutral view but have submitted several comments.
On 26th January there was a full council meeting for the Shadow Cumberland Council, at which we approved the new constitution and the council tax issues. It was great to see that, although we voted through the maximum allowable rise of 4.99%, we also agreed that if the law allows (as we expect it will) we will increase the council tax on second homes from 1st April 2024 by a maximum of 100%. We will also allow up to a 100% reduction in council tax for households on low incomes.
Then, later that day we had a lively meeting at our Green Party AGM with tea and biscuits provided by Sharon and bottles of homemade wine gifted by Alistair to those who attended. Not to forget to mention, the chocolates provided by Ian – I think I ate most of those! As well as all the business stuff, we planned our next social event in February with food, a quiz and a special guest appearance by the national spokesperson on sport, media and culture, Jack Lenox.
Cllr. Jill Perry
