9th   Met up with other trustees of the Carlisle and Eden Citizens Advice to view alternative premises for when our lease of Old Post Office Court expires.   The central building occupying two floors within easy reach  of both bus and train but has poor car access/parking but there are numerous car-parks only a short distance away.   Being in a Conservation Area there will be no reason to alter the outside of the building but the inside will need configuration and redecoration.  At what cost?

10th   The members of the Development Control Committee met up at the Civic Centre in order to visit sites of contentious planning applications and sites where the owners of  trees which have a Tree Preservation Order  on them have requested felling.   Firstly we visited Skelton Court, Wetheral to view the 17 apartment building which was mainly retrospective due to the additional 2 apartments and external work to building and grounds (Revised Landscaping and Parking Layout).   We then viewed two premises where trees were requested to be felled, one in Wetheral and the other in Scotby before travelling on to Dalston where a very old building that had once been three cottages was recommended for demolition prior to the erection of three one-bedroomed dwellings with a new Parish Council Office on the ground floor with a flat above.   In the evening I was at the monthly meeting of Wetheral Parish Council that was held this month in Scotby Village Hall.   Due to the absence of the Chairman, Mike Higginbotham, the vice Chairman, Chris Dodd, chaired the meeting.   There was one planning application to be considered before the minutes of the Planning Committee, Rights of Way Committee and the Finance & Grants Committee were received and their recommendations approved.   The Bank Reconciliation was noted and the Payment of Accounts authorised prior to the minutes of the Scotby Village Hall Committee being received.   The date of the next meeting is the 9th March 2016.

12th   Up early in order to collect a fellow member of the Development Control Committee and arrive at the Civic Centre by 9 a.m. for the pre-meeting to be held in the new Conservative Group Office on the 4th floor, due to the flooding.   We had only five applications to determine with the first, Skelton Court, Wetheral, taking an hour and a half, at the end of which members were minded to refuse the application.   Only two of the others were approved with one being deferred for further reports and the other delayed for a site visit.   Four Tree Preservation Orders were confirmed with one deferred as the owner wished to be present as he wished to speak.   The quarterly report on planning enforcement was noted  and a new Enforcement Plan is to be made and members requested that a training day be arranged to have input to the new plan.