After a slow start to the day, I called the A1 Bluefields site owner and rejected the purchase due to their asking price after which first Percy and then Joy Standen arrived to discuss Council tactics. I ended up spending the morning discussing planning procedures after which I found the main issue could wait after all!
A row with Diana over taking phone calls as we ate our lunch and then the afternoon learning how to install my new boat battery chargers that arrived today and then this evening's meeting of the Kimbolton School Society's Committee
I slept well enough but was still not ready for the others at breakfast. When I am called as early as 7.00am, it takes me half an hour just to become sensible and drink my morning tea. I was ready soon enough afterwards and then settled down into my office and re-created my action list hoping to get some work done. I called the owners of the land near the A1 (Bluefields) and discussed a purchase price but they wanted some £30,000 for it when I was only willing to pay £18,500 based on my valuation. They say that they have others willing to pay more and so they must be advised to take that if it is true. Then comes Percy Meyer to do some photocopying for the press releases etc. and he stayed to chat for a while until we were interrupted by the arrival of Joy Standen, a fellow Little Paxton Parish Councillor.
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Percy left to let us talk in private and then Joy told me at great and confusing length how she was upset at the way in which The Parish Clerk and Planning Chairman are not allowing us proper consideration of applications. I sympathised but could only see the way forward by voting on a more amenable Planning Chairman and we could not agree on a more suitable chairman as she was not keen on John Grosvenor for missing meetings etc. and I could see nobody else. I phoned the Parish Clerk after she had gone and spent some time going down the route of trying to get a meeting organised to consider this latest application that was causing the problem. After a number of calls, I then called the Planning Officer at the District Council to discuss his letter and try to understand the planners' point of view. During this process, it became apparent that there was now not so much urgency attached to this decision and so we could relax and consider the matter at the next Parish Planning meeting anyway! It was thus a fairly wasted morning but I suppose I dealt with the main problem which is a good thing. A row with Diana over lunch as she had taken a phone call during the meal from her friend and so left me waiting for my pudding which I eventually would wait no further for. This afternoon, the boat battery chargers and equipment arrived and I spent some time trying to sort out the instructions for their installation. These were incomplete, of course, and phone calls to the supplier revealed that they did not really understand the units either. Later, with the help of a neighbour, Russell James, who is an electrical engineer keen on boating, I worked out what I wanted to do but no thanks to the manufacturer. After tea, I cleared up and then it was time to get ready for this evening's meeting of the Kimbolton School Society's Committee upon which I sit.