Still suffering from my core throat and chesty cough on a slightly milder day, I managed to get to my Dentist’s appointment in Kimbolton but was subjected to a very hard teeth cleaning regime. I then wrote my resignation as a Buckden School Governor, fielded the wroth of the Lord of the Manor of Diddington over organising opposition to his gravel farming and was congratulated over my actions on the Coated Stone Plant in Little Paxton as their council are now opposed.
Then a letter to the HDC District Administrator about the procedure for allocating committee places where, yet again, I am the protagonist in the interests of a fairer outcome. After these excursions, I was coughing badly at bedtime. The government won its debate in parliament, with Liberal Democrat support, on the its plans to issue 225,000 Hong Kong residents with British passports. The Prime Minister has try to lay the blame regarding the Iraq Supergun at the door of the contractors, even though they were warned, and Lithuania is doing its best to stand up to the oil blockade and Bush declines to take any action for fear of damaging US/Soviet relations where he has more at stake.
Nothing changed much today. The breeze was slighter but still from a northern direction and my throat and chest were much the same. I forced myself up again and, although I was half an hour late to breakfast, I still managed to wash my hair and get to my Dentist for 9.30am. He has moved from St Neots to Kimbolton and has a newly-equipped surgery and (initially at any rate) more time to spend on each of us. He went on at great length about the requirements for effective teeth cleaning which, summarised, were that unless you were choking and your gums bleeding that you were not trying hard enough! I bought three new toothbrushes from him after he had cleaned the plaque off my teeth and polished them and I then pledged to improve my ways (again!). This morning Percy rang and I read my letter to him that gave my reasons for resigning from the Governorship of Buckden School which went as follows:-
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"I regret that the many and various other commitments that I have mean that I can only attend meetings arranged well in advance and I feel that I have not been able to contribute as I would have wished to the governing of Buckden C of E School. Having to again send my apologies has caused me to reflect on whether it is any longer fair to yourself and your colleagues for me to remain on the Governing Body. Recent meetings have shown just how demanding of time and energy the task is and I feel that the job really needs somebody who has more time and availability to discharge the function properly if an undue load is not to fall on other governors and the teaching staff. I must therefore ask you to accept my resignation.
May I also say that I can only hold yourself and the rest of the long-term governors in the greatest admiration and respect for the efforts that they are putting in. The demands of meetings, visits, reading, training and the acquisition of knowledge needed and then the management and responsibility undertaken under such a pace of rapid change are quite remarkable. That it is a voluntary activity undertaken on a part-time and unpaid basis, gives me cause to wonder whether too much is not expected by the Education Department. It certainly requires volunteers who will pursue it as their main interest if the responsibility is to be taken seriously, which is sadly something that I cannot do.
Lastly, whilst I believe in the value of local decision-making, I would be less than frank if I did not admit to some growing misgivings over the way in which resources are being allocated to schools under the new financial management system; where other local schools are faced with the difficult matter of teacher redundancies and I give Little Paxton and Bushmead as particular examples. I fear that it would therefore be inconsistent of me to play an enabling role within one school without seeking the reforms of the system needed for the others to be able to function effectively.
During my short association with Buckden C of E School, I have been most impressed with the professional teaching and management standards and with the facilities of the school and have no doubt that your past achievements will continue. May I wish the governors, teachers and staff every success in the future." It had a personal and political message and Percy agreed.
For the rest of the morning and the afternoon, I continued with my correspondence. I had the difficult job of replying positively to an irate Lord of Diddington, Peter Thornhill, who had been incensed (again) by my comments in the last FOCUS. He really needs a Tory councillor who he could support financially and who would be careful not to do or say anything that impedes his plans! It must have been a shock when I was elected, but he has to make the best of me now. Then a letter to the District Administrator about the procedure for allocating committee places where, yet again, I am the protagonist in the interests of a fairer outcome. I see from the papers today that the Little Paxton Parish Council accepted my lobbying and reversed a previous decision on the merits of a coating plant in Paxton Pits. They are now opposed to the idea! I suppose that I should be rejoicing but I hate having to fight them on these matters and wish that they would come to the right conclusions of their own accord. Worked on until tea-time and then caught up on my journal for yesterday before going to this evening's meeting of the Parish Leisure and Amenity Committee. It was a good, if rather long, meeting and many items of interest were discussed and resolved. There were no recriminations over my actions on the Coated Stone Plant and, in fact, one of the councillors congratulated me on the move and criticised the Planning Chairman for the previous decision.
I was late home and then even later to bed but Di was still up. The meeting and trip outside did not help my chest and I was coughing badly at bedtime and needing two hot water bottles. The news today was of the government winning its debate in parliament on the its plans to issue 225,000 Hong Kong residents with British passports. Many Conservatives opposed the move, but many Labour backbenchers also abstained with the Liberal Democrats voting in favour to give a majority of about 100. The Prime Minister has laid the blame regarding the Iraq Supergun at the door of the contractors, even though the government had been warned by them of their suspicions. Lithuania is doing its best to stand up to the oil blockade and Bush declines to take any action for fear of damaging US/Soviet relations where he has more at stake.