I scanned the paper and mail this morning after a night of less sleep, and then chased various people about matters not being progressed and ended up pleased that local papers are picking up on my history project and to have seen the builders at last. The day spent tidying and reorganising my office and balancing my bank accounts which finished with a filing exercise. Two meeting this evening where, in the first, I witnessed St Neots Mayor Bill Longford going against Town Council resolutions in voting for a Tory backer Twigden’s development proposal and then, in the second, reporting this betrayal to the Priory Doom committee meeting who immediately published a damning Press Release.
I slept less soundly last night but was still rested enough to get up promptly to make breakfast on time at 7:30am. Daniel was not so organised and hardly had time for half a slice of toast before it was time for him to rush off to school. Read the papers and mail but there was little in either of consequence. To my office where I made a few telephone calls chasing people who seem to have forgotten to do things. At least I was pleased to hear that the St Neots Weekly News editor had found Mrs Bunnage’s photograph of the old Church Choir and will be sending a reporter to see me later this week. I spent most of the day sorting out my office – clearing it up entirely by removing papers from all the surfaces and moving the refectory table away from the fireplace and against the French Windows for the winter.
Then I undertook all the filing associated with this endeavour and attended to all of the small matters thrown up by this new efficiency. In the event, there was not much time for a major exercise, but I did get the cheques paid into the right accounts and balances adjusted between them. This afternoon, the builders dropped round and said that they would be resuming work tomorrow; now that the bricks were arriving from the London Brick Company. They still seem a bit vague about the fish pool design. This evening, I attended two meetings: firstly, a District Council Planning Committee meeting in Huntingdon where the Eaton Meadows housing development plan was thrown out despite the support of it by local Tory councillors Longford and Pearson; the former of which, as mayor of St Neots, presided over a town council meeting recently which recommended unanimously rejecting the scheme! The developer, Twigden, supports Tory funds and provided the venue for this year’s local conservative ball and the whole matter stinks. My second meeting was the Committee for Priory Doom; where I reported the above and a Doom press release will be issued criticising the inconsistency of the mayor on this point. Home late and only time for my journal before bed but I retired well satisfied with my efforts to clear up my office.