A credit to their generation.

I had the great pleasure yesterday afternoon (Sunday) to be part of the welcoming party for the group of marchers representing all of the services on their “March for Honour” as they passed through Shepton. 

The group of young men involved in the march are truly a credit to themselves, their colleagues and the country as a whole. I have not spoken to a more polite, respectful and self assured group of young men for an awfully long time. I have often been very critical of a lot of the teenagers and young people that I come into contact with, I often find that they are boorish, ignorant, disrespectful and arrogant. This group of young men could not have been more different and it was a huge pleasure to share their company even if it was only for a short while. I wish them great success in their bid to raise £1 million for the poppy appeal and look forward to seeing them at the Albert Hall at the end of their long march.

Last week was full of the usual fun and games, Tuesday night saw a meeting of the Town Council which degenerated into the usual slanging match with Cllr Dunscombe leading the shouting. It comes to something when a town councillor has to be officially warned as to his conduct in the middle of a meeting, especially after we had just listened to a very interesting presentation by the monitoring officer, who explained how members should act when taking council decisions.

Unfortunately we were not able to set the precept for the Town Council at that meeting as we did not have a recommendation from the Community Development committee so it will have to wait until our January meeting. There are a number of competing projects that will require significant funding if they are to proceed and we will have to make some decisions about these in the very near future.

Tonight there is a meeting of the Cabinet at MDC, as always it is an open meeting with members of the public welcome if they wish to come along and listen. Tonight’s meeting will be especially interesting as we will be discussing how the measures in the comprehensive spending review are likely to affect Mendip in the next few years. As portfolio holder responsible for benefits, my department will have to administer the new housing and council tax benefit regulations and make sure everyone understands them, it’s not going to be easy.

It’s a bit quieter on the meetings front this week (thank goodness), maybe I’ll even have time to get on with some work for my business and keep the wolf from the door, sometimes it is very difficult to balance what has to be done for the council with earning a living. Last year I kept a record of all of the hours I put in on council work, phone calls, e-mails, meetings, case work, official events etc etc, it worked out that I received £2.60 per hour for that period, from a tax payers point of view it’s a good job we are not on the minimum wage!

I’m really looking forward to the Edwardian section of “Turn Back Time” tomorrow evening and to the Carnival on Wednesday. The weather forecast is not too good for the next couple of days, let’s hope it clears up in time so that everyone can enjoy what must be one of the best free shows on earth without getting soaked. We really are so lucky to have this fantastic event on our doorstep every year.