Gordon Hook

I have just been asked what I am doing today. It is a question my father (91 later this year) asks from time to time, as he has a friend who is a Tory Cllr in Gloucestershire where he lives who, father tells me, doesn’t seem to do anything much and goes to a meeting ,”perhaps every few months”(!) “You Cllrs are all on a jolly”, seems therefore to be the extent of his understanding. He is a difficult man to debate with.
I therefore thought it might be of interest from time to time and purely randomly to take a day and say what I have done and what is programmed for the remainder.
I was answering overnight emails from about 7.15, and the phone rang about 8 with a resident questioning what was happening in Haldon Rise, Buckland. A traffic scheme that I have been trying to get established for at least 3 years is coming to fruition, but not to everyones exact liking, so work needed there today. Two further calls followed, one from Cllr Fry re a joint meeting planned for next week and another constituent re a house eviction problem. That too needs urgent attention. Soon after the resident about to be evicted phones and a conversation follows where it is clear she is a resilient individual, but a totally tragic case. Officers at TDC are well aware of the situation and “pulling out all the stops”.
I then follow up a problem with a missing manhole cover in Addison Road and contact 2 residents re the removal of a tree in St Lukes Road which they have wanted gone for some time and at last agreement has been reached. They are pleased with the outcome. It’s good to win 1 or 2 now and again!!
I need to visit the site of the road works in Buckland and deliver a few more letters re road repairs(or rather the lack of them) in roads off East Street.
Tomorrow(Thursday) is Full Council day at Exeter and I need to prepare for that.
DCC have just adopted an Environmental policy which is about as “wishy washy” as you could write. I have already been critical of its blandness and lack of ambition. Tomorrow I have asked for a statement from the Portfolio Holder on the policy, and will try and make a few constructive points after I have heard what he has to say.
I need to follow up concerns about grass cutting along the Torquay Road, where cutting has not taken place in order to protect a wild flower. Some residents are in favour, some against. A classic case of “you can’t please all the people all the time”. I also have complaints from a resident in Twickenham Road re delivery lorries leaving their engines running, sometimes for 1/2 an hour or more while off loading produce to the Coop. I will enlist the help of TDC Environmental Health with that one.
In addition I receive something of the order of 60 – 100 emails a day which will need an answer in perhaps 20% of the cases; the snail mail hasn’t yet arrived and the phone is likely to go any minute, but otherwise the day is my own……I try and clear all emails from a day before retiring at night, so another long day in prospect and with Thursday being Full Council no respite there. On Friday I am looking forward to going into Haytor View School for a couple of hours in the morning to talk with and answer questions from children about being a councillor(I think) As a former teacher, albeit of mainly rather older children, I am looking forward to that visit.
Also I must try and get to sell some tickets for a Lib Dem Wine Tasting Evening (£12.50) Please contact me if interested….you are very welcome, continue thanking helpers from the recent election and inviting them to a “Thank You Do”, and go shopping for myself and a fellow LD Cllr. Jackie Brodie, who works just about full time in the summer ……but I’m sure you are right Dad, we C’llrs are on a jolly….and I’ve just taken a cut of approx £7,500 thanks to voters saying the Lib Dems weren’t running the council well enough……or perhaps they were saying something else???