Week two

(I will try to think of a more original heading for future posts)

 

Week two was a quieter week: as far as involvement with the Council is concerned, I'm waiting for the first meeting of the Council next Wednesday when the committee and management structure will be decided and I'll learn what if any committees I'll be involved in. The Labour group has said it has come to an arrangment with the three independents which could have implications for rural Northumberland. The training/induction/introduction to services and staff mostly takes place in June so at the moment I'm not sure which levers to pull if anything needs doing.

 

I have been to four of the parish councils: they all have different styles, I won't comment on which is more effective - not least because one meeting isn't enough to judge - but one common factor seems to be a frustration in getting a response from the County Council on issues. Some of this will be a question of a mismatch of priorities. I'll be interested over the next few months to see if there's another reason and to see if that can be improved. I got some feedback and help from one of the County's teams regarding bank hoilday rubbish collection, which was good, and the County has allocated someone senior to deal with one of the main problems in Belford. So it's not all bad.

 

Lastly, I've completed my election expenses - for the record, apart from the £6.50 cost of this website, everything else (about £400) was an allocation of printing and other costs from Berwick Conservatives for all those leaflets that I know people admired.