During a mixed month of weather, sometimes wet and stormy we managed four trips to Norfolk and some time on the Paxton Princess as I spent more time with the family and my District Council work ended. I was now tussling with a new council in Norfolk over my plans to redevelop my Ropes Hill Dyke site and was making progress in tackling the forty objections that first emerged I had more immediate success in upgrading the Paxton Princess refrigeration.
The month also saw my last meeting of the District Council with much genuine expression of shock sadness from council colleagues and opponents alike. I carried on working in support of others, chaired meetings on School Buses to Paxton and a Playing Field for Southoe and particularly ensured the election of my LibDem successor John Brown in Paxton ward.
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America was blighted by the outbreak of a widespread riot in California on racial issues after an all-white jury cleared police of assault. Back home, after the re-election of the Conservatives with a small majority, the Labour party embarked upon a divisive leadership campaign with Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley, stepping down with John Smith and Brian Gould the likely successors. John Major starts re-organising his cabinet and giving the boot to Kenneth Baker and Tom King.
My view that competing with Anthony Grant in our South West Cambridgeshire Tory stronghold was a waste of time was justified as Sir Anthony easily won our constituency election with a 57% majority. Betty Boothroyd, the former Labour Deputy Speaker, was elected new Speaker of the House of Commons and so became the first-ever woman to occupy that position. The IRA bomb explosions, that rocked the Baltic Exchange in The City of London on the day after election day, killed three including a 15-year-old girl
This was a very mixed month of weather with very mild and warm periods as the rain returned between chilly and clear spells with the odd very wet and stormy night until there was more brightness later on. This was one of my most active months in Norfolk so far - too much so for comfort and relaxation. I visited Horning no less than four times, staying on each occasion with one trip taking the form of a one-and-a-half week boating holiday with Diana and the girls. This short break occurred during some arctic weather, but this did not stop us visiting Wroxham shops and barns, Yarmouth (twice), St Bennett's Abbey, Norwich, Brundall, Oulton Broad and Lowestoft and so we still had some fun.
We had visited Wroxham by putting the mud-weight down to moor The Paxton Princess in Wroxham Broad and taking The Jolly in under the bridge to moor up in the town centre moorings for coffee and shopping. We also used The Jolly later to get to the Horning Leisure Centre for a swim before putting the inflatable on the davits and setting off. When mooring in Yarmouth we had lunch at McDonalds, and then enjoyed trips to Joyland, Pleasure Beach and back in a Landau before staying overnight.
We had also overcome gale-force winds and some very high tides in some of the worst weather that we had ever experienced on the Broads in the process. We were in trouble at Yarmouth and Oulton from the tidal range but also enjoyed friendship and a warm welcome from the Norwich and Oulton Broad Harbourmasters en route. Whilst we were staying at Oulton Broad, we shopped in Jeckells Chandlers and bought Di a new sleeping bag and some ropes so that the girls could practice their knots and then, after allowing the girls to play briefly on the play equipment in the Nicholas Everett Park, we took the bus into Lowestoft for lunch and some more shopping. Then back to Horning the boat with some new charts where Di took the girls swimming in the Horning Leisure Centre as we ended our break on the boat
When back at home in Paxton, I started by organising the gardener and tackling paperwork at my desk whilst also working on the swimming pool, dosing it three times with "super-shock" levels of chlorine after I removed the winter cover to find the pool full of filthy green algae. I found some more time for my family this month, taking the girls to Bedford to the shops and library and well as the Bedford Oasis Swimming Pool where I swam with Della in the waves and down the flume slides. This, before settling down to my year-end financial investment figures
Also, when travelling to Norfolk, I was taking the new stainless steel refrigerator insert that had arrived for the boat; whilst the girls had used Wroxham Library and Di and I had morning coffee at Roy’s. We twice visited Mum on the way who was initially managing with help from her friends before she then looked set to stay a while with Freda later. Though desperately trying to reduce the number of commitments that I had, I was lumbered with the post of chairing the Ropes Hill Dyke Residents Association but then made some new friends in Mr and Mrs James and Bernice Dunham, formerly of Horseborough Hall. My end-of-year tax planning, combined with the generosity to the rich of the on-going Tory government, meant that I am now no longer a high-rate taxpayer!
My working trips to Horning, witnessed the end of the piling and excavation for Harnser by Amis and my own efforts were aimed at commissioning the boat refrigerator (with its much-improved efficiency) and organising the building control approvals and design. For the refrigerator, I had delivered a cardboard box model to the Little Paxton contact of an engineering firm so that I could get my new bespoke fridge liner made and then used expanding foam to surround the new fridge liner. After this, I re-installed the fridge compressor and controls into the right position so that the refrigeration engineer could reconnect it and the work went well as the refrigerator was fully commissioned and working well.
The end of the month saw me just about in control of the Harnser building control process, after a meeting with Mr Cooper at the North Walsham office had raised several problems on the structural and fire-protection side, which I was left to resolve by letter to David Townend, the structural engineer in Norwich. Even so, I was struggling to get the revised changes to the application back in before the deadline. The council are being very strict with the application of the building regulations, treating the new boatshed as a dwelling and listing over forty ways in which the original plans do not comply.
To make progress, I had started work by mowing the lawn, tearing off the lining under the Heronshaw boat house, a tiring and dirty job, and then demolishing old quay heading and using the flame spreader to clear the gravel drive of weeds. I had trouble with my aging Range Rover this month after it failed to start one day after lunch at the Bridge Restaurant in Wroxham. It had been increasingly difficult to start and then coughed like an old smoker! but I managed to get Broadland Motors to change a faulty petrol pump and we were running again.
I attended my last meeting of the District Council this month and received much expression of shock and sadness from council colleagues and opponents alike and from the constituents that I represented. It was touching when the other members expressed genuine regret at my imminent retirement. This narrowly allowed me to avoid the peak of unwanted publicity as I turned down a chance to appear on Radio 4's Today Programme! Their very relevant theme was the difficulty of mounting opposition in areas dominated by a single party and the rapid turnover of opposition councillors! Despite reservations, I was persuaded to take over the chair of the Ropes Hill Residents Association for the first time for a good meeting to prepare for forthcoming road repairs
In the meantime, I had introduced John Brown to helpers and poster site owners and then to the Parish Council and Village Hall Committee and generally helped John with advice and assistance within the restrictions of time that I had available. I spent one long day in the office on the task of updating my portable computer for the EARS (Election Agents Recording System) electoral database for Little Paxton I was also updating the electoral rolls on to the computer, keying in the data to find that candidate John was making good progress in covering the ward which showed that we were doing well enough to win. I was helping with the election paperwork generally and to co-ordinate, plan and execute the other parallel campaigns, which had been struggling without me.
I did chair a meeting about bus services from Little Paxton to Longsands School when the Mums, the bus company and the principal of Longsands School were also involved and we had a very good session at which, not only was it pledged to tackle the problems involved, but also improved communication between the parties concerned. I got involved in instigating a playing field meeting in Southoe village hall which had become complicated when John had invited electors to what was to be a meeting with councillors. After some misunderstanding, I chaired an impromptu public meeting first after which we could have our private meeting. I managed to put in some more work on election literature and had to placate Ross McKay when I had directed our canvassers to less safe wards.
The mad and unfair world in which we lived was evidenced in America by the outbreak of a widespread riot in California on racial issues after an all-white jury cleared police of assault on a black people despite clear video evidence to the contrary. I hoped would end the Tories’ use of the U.S. as a model example. In the wake of the most important event of the month - the re-election of the Conservatives with a small majority - all the Labour Party could do is wring its hands and embark upon a divisive leadership crisis with Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley, stepping down with John Smith and Brian Gould the likely successors. John Major starts re-organising his cabinet and giving the boot to Kenneth Baker and Tom King.
No wonder I seek refuge and obscurity in Norfolk! My view that competing with Anthony Grant in our South West Cambridgeshire Tory stronghold was a waste of time was justified as Sir Anthony easily won our constituency election with a 57% majority. Betty Boothroyd, the former Labour Deputy Speaker, was elected new Speaker of the House of Commons and so became the first-ever woman to occupy that position. The IRA bomb explosions, that rocked the Baltic Exchange in The City of London on the day after election day, killed three including a 15-year-old girl called Danielle Carter which news unsettled our Della.