A sunny day for the County and District Council Elections which I finally took under my wing and organised for the day.
Our Liberal Democrat party gained the Eaton’s County seat, retained Priory, and held on to its District and Town Council by-election seats and thus took outright control of St Neots Town Council
A sunny day greeted me as I rose early to tackle an election day. I had not helped my colleagues for a long time, and I wanted to assist in the run up to the day but my Mum's funeral had put that out of the question. I exercised Sam, had a quick breakfast with the family and then got over to the village hall Polling Station at the start of polling at 8.00am. I had no idea as to how well organised we were but at least could establish that our telling had started all right.
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To the party committee room to find candidates Joan Main and Michael Pope setting up a manual "Shuttleworth" system but held fire on making any suggestions until I had got out to Priory and the Eatons. With Sally at Avenue Road, I got the Priory Park computer running, reset the files for polling day, and then got them entering the numbers from the telling lists. Over to Eaton Socon (via the Cambridge Street car wash) where I met up with Mary Bloom by appointment to view 28 Duloe Brook. I was satisfied and, subject to valuation, I decided to make an offer to buy it for rental by the children’s trusts for £40,000. A short period at Eaton Socon committee room and then back to Paxton.
I had got the backing of Sally (at Priory) and Derek (at Eaton) to help with resource at Paxton if I was to decide to upgrade their organisation but I opted to agree with Michael that we should first computerise the manual system. Using Paxton canvas sheets, I first used the Priory computer to get the database complete then, calling over the telling sheets, I had the computer up to date and live with actual polling data soon after lunch. We then closed the Paxton committee room and I ran both wards from Avenue Road; inputting polling numbers and printing out Shuttleworths.
This also allowed us to stop running the gauntlet of Joan Main's family Pit Bull Terrier (a breed now controlled by the Dangerous Dogs Act and forced to be muzzled by law!) which was another reason to shun Park Way! I was so tied up with all this organisation that I completely forgot my own dog and his evening meal and walk but fortunately Diana fed him and let him roam around the back garden in my absence and he was very good. We were going "Hammer and Tongs" until close of polls and then went along to Longsands for the count.
Our Liberal Democrat party gained the Eatons County seat and retained Priory, held onto its District and Town Council by-election seats and thus took outright control of St Neots Town Council as, with one seat vacant too late for the election, they had a temporary majority to co-opt another member to make a permanent one! Around the rest of the country it was a red-letter day for the LibDems, with many seats being won and the Tories losing control of all of the shires except Buckinghamshire! To bed very tired but satisfied at 2.00am as the elections had matched my expectations.