4th   A strange situation with the resignation of the Prime Minister and now with 5 Members of Parliament putting their names forward and the selection of the last two standing being determined by Members this week by election.    Today I have my yearly Blood Test, weight and blood pressure taken as well as a urine test prior to seeing the Cardio-vascular nurse in a fortnight.   At 6 p.m. I was at The Greyhound Public House in Cotehill to meet a resident who has been responsible for gathering names on a petition, to be sent to the Chatsworth Estate Trustees, to encourage them to make provision for development on the old Cotehill School site that has been left derelict for a number of years and is an eye-sore in the village.   Chatsworth Estate are the owners of the school site and I have been involved in trying to get this site developed for some time.   In the evening I was at The Crown and Mitre Hotel in Carlisle with my wife to hear Richard Madely and his wife Judy talk about his new novel “The Night Book” which is based on Cumbria in 1976.   At that time he was living and working in Carlisle initially with Radio Carlisle (now Radio Cumbria) and then with Border Television.

6th   At the Civic Centre for 10 a.m. for the usual Development Control Site Visits, but on this occasion only five visits!   Visits were to Moorhouse and Brunstock where residential development is proposed, then to Rockcliffe for a single dwelling and finally to Cargo and Roadhead for conversions of barns  to residential accommodation.

7th   A busy day, the first appointment was a meeting of the Conservative Policy  Group at the Civic Centre at 1 p.m. where we discussed the minutes of the Executive before we concentrated on future policies for the years ahead.   By three o’clock I was in attendance at Scotby School for a site visit/meeting with the contractors who are going to re-roof the school buildings during the Summer Holidays.   Being the Health and Safety/Buildings Governor it was important that I was present.   Once that meeting had been completed I travelled down to Armathwaite to attend a presentation by Story Rail who are the contactors for the land-slip on the Settle/Carlisle line at Eden Brows.   This occurred after storm Desmond and it is to cost some £28 Million to repair and will not reopen until March 2017.   At 7 p.m. I was at the committee meeting of the Scotby Village Hall Committee where we were updated on the running of the hall and the financial situation.   A demonstration of the Defibrillator which has now been installed will be on the 26th July.   Four meetings in seven hours!!!

8th   The day of the Development Control Committee so an early start of 9 a.m. at the Civic Centre for the pre-meeting.   There were some 11 applications to be considered and some very contentious with members of the public requesting to speak.   They all went with the officer’s recommendation except the proposal for development at Brunstock where members felt that we should have an independent Highway assessment in this small hamlet with narrow roads and no pavements, so this was deferred until this has taken place.   The meting lasted until 2.30 p.m. and thus it was after 3 p.m. before we returned home.

9th   At Our Lady’s Catholic Church in Warwick Road where our gardener, Paul, was married, may he and his wife, Natasha, have a long and happy life together.