New Car

A bargain at £5 from the second hand toy and equipment shop. I've had a lot of great stuff from it in the past three years since I had to re-equip the house with baby/toddler/children's items. Such a brilliant but simple idea. I'll be bringing the three year old here this afternoon for her Tuesday sleepover and I hope she will enjoy her car. The forecast was for rain but it's not a bad day at all so with any luck we'll get an hour in the garden later.

In other news I had an email from the local authority's Returning Officer to let me know that not enough people had applied to become Community Councillors for the area where I live. The minimum number is 7 and there were only 6 nominees, of whom I was one. So there won't be a Community Council in this area unless the election is re-run. It's a bit depressing and puts local democracy on a shoogly peg. There's a Community Empowerment Act giving greater powers to local communities in such matters as planning, participation, consultation, land purchase and so on. It is so important that devolved powers are properly exercised or local and national government just steams ahead. A few of us had got together to apply to become Community Councillors. So now we will have to find another route into influencing the plans and decisions which affect the community.