A day dominated by reading papers for the District Council planning committee meeting and dealing with other correspondence, phone calls and priorities but I got out with Debbie to take her horse Reading to Offord, only to experience a huge torrential thunderstorm which flooded the stable yard and roads but which I survived due to taking my Range Rover. The new Risley remand centre with its high proportion of mentally ill inmates and high suicide rates has 823 inmates in space for 92 and is castigated. Thatcher promotes Cecil Parkinson to chair the Star chamber cabinet committee and the new style Moscow conference has novel contributions.
Groggy again this morning and was late washing and getting down to breakfast. I had received a call on my new answering system and called back late last night and it was a problem in Park Avenue of a swimming pool owner covering it with an intrusive metal and plastic dome that had upset the neighbours. This morning, I eventually got down to my hot croissants and read with interest the Hunts Post, which was full of local political activity. After the meal, I wrote up these last two day’s journal and then read today’s post and papers, which meant just about the whole morning was gone. The agenda, minutes and papers for the Planning Committee next Monday weighed nearly 2lbs and cost nearly £2 to send to me by first class post. So much that is worthwhile to do and so little time to do it. In fact, I continued to read it for a while after lunch and then typed up a couple of letters for my main work effort this afternoon and took a couple of phone calls. I also walked round to see a lady in Park Avenue about the sign at the end of the road, which she had been trying to get erected. Later, an early tea, and then I actually managed to take Debbie horse riding and stayed with her to watch. She presently has a Scottish instructress, who is rather strict on style and dressage, but she is soft to Debbie, who plays the innocent learner to good effect. As they rode in the school, the heavens opened with a torrential thunderstorm, which flooded the roads and yard. The Range Rover got us home all right, though there were other cars by the roadside with damp electrics.
Drove around Little Paxton on my return to look at the drainage problems and pools of water, with Park Crescent still a problem area. Then I witnessed a speeding white car causing disturbance in and out of the Playing Field Road and thus started an exercise of reporting it to the police once I was home again. This evening, I wrote more letters to try and get my Council motion seconded and a young policeman was in and out, between calls, taking a statement at my insistence. Not a day of great achievement in all and I hope that tomorrow will be better, as I need to get clear and start work on The Lady if we are to go away on it next weekend. All this community work is rather distracting. Main news today is of a report condemning conditions at the new Risley Remand Centre. Overcrowding, with an increase in the number of mentally ill inmates, a high suicide rate, saw 823 men in accommodation for 514 and 124 women in space for 92. There is also low ceilings, poor lighting and filthy conditions. Thatcher is promoting Cecil Parkinson to head the ‘Star Chamber’ Cabinet Committee, which adjudicates between the treasury and spending departments, in a move seen to be grooming him as a future Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the new style Moscow conference, a delegate has actually called for the resignation of Gromyko, the Soviet Foreign Minister, but others received applause when supporting him.