From your own correspondent in the middle of a field in East Anglia.


As part of my life, my wife seems to have got involved in agility competitions with our dogs. It all started with a small 'hyper' Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (Bonnie), that the dog club suggested might be good  for agility. Wow, she took to it like a noisy duck to muddy water. Put a 'hurdle' in front of her, and she was away.

Over the years, we acquired a Cocker Spaniel (Jamie), who turned out to be a real prat – plodded his way round courses, always out of time but considered to be a good 'banker' for club competitions and even managed to 'win out' of class three years ago due to being the only dog that did a clear round, although with time faults. His was the time that we choose a 'sheltie' (Flora) to continue helping my wife keep fit. Flora is faster than James, not as enthusiastic as Bonnie (or as noisy!) but tends to stop and ensure that the number of the piece of equipment is correctly marked – funny girl! When the act gets together, she is good.

However, over 8 is considered veteran and with Bonnie over 9, James being a stupid 7 year old, Flora was 4 so it was time to choose another dog.
I got home one day and 'that' question was asked – 'What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?'. Off to East Anglia we go and come back with a nephew of Flora. Oh well, another mouth to feed.
Two years on, Bonnie is no longer with us, James has all but retired, Flora still tends to check the numbers and Archie (that's the latest sheltie) is coming along in leaps and bounds.

All this travelling to competitions is very wearing (on site at 7:30 often means a 5am start!) and a couple of years ago, going to Huntingdon racecourse 3 days running was the last straw. Time to to resolve the matter by obtaining a motorhome or caravan. This is easier said than done as I soon found out. Both have advantages and disadvantages. In the end, the we settled on a small caravan and was as self contained as possible. The idea was, naturally, that 'her indoors' could toddle off and I could get of bit of peace. After all, the caravan has it's own motor system for easy manoeuvring, own water supply, shower, wc and everything else a girl could want.

So I ask myself, exactly why am I writing this piece in the middle of Littleport Sports Centre grounds in lovely sunshine surrounded by barking dogs and lots of gals (like horses, it appears to be a female thing). Easter was spent in the grounds of Shuttleworth complete with gales and 2 inches of snow, a couple of weeks later it was the turn of Walton on Themes to have 1+ inches of snow and a couple of weeks after that we had nice sunshine at the Newbury Show ground, while you all had thunder and lightning. I'm really looking forward to Peterborough Show ground, Orsett Rugby ground, Huntingdon Racecourse and all the other 'fields' that await our presence over the next few months.

Stop press – the tannoy has just announced a fly ball demo is being set-up – now that is fun, must go and have a look!


Hospital

The bill for the legal  battle that the DHAG fought  has now been agreed and paid - £26,000, which leave around £20,000 still in the coffers to continue the fight  and keep decent medical provision in Dacorum.
I know the Trust is just doing what it has been told to do by the government, but it’s still being very selective when actually carrying out their bidding. It’s still not clear how they propose to maintain existing services before they are moved to the yet to be built hospital at Watford. They keep reducing Hemels services and then forget that they are still not available in the invisible Watford Hospital. Even worse is the idea that a ‘super surgery’ will be built in the centre of Hemel, without any regard to existing surgeries. It looks like they are just ignoring anything that already exists, just to justify their existence and plans.

Boat Yard

The appeal by the developer has been rejected, so the ‘boat yard’ will stay for the time being. I’m not sure that the alternative proposals being floated by the Community Partnership are a lot better in the real world.
The original (well, in my lifetime!) yard, extended from Ravens Lane to the land now occupied by the flats known as Bridge Court. Now that was enough land to house the 3 story building  now known as The Warehouse, the repair/boat building facility as well as all the other bits a viable business needs. The downturn of  freight canal traffic didn’t help and now I don’t believe there is enough space for even a training facility. Indeed, the BCP is suggesting building some houses on the land to fund any development (sounds familiar?).
Remember that most customers/supplies used to come via the canal, so the narrowness of Bridge Street - it didn’t used to have a footway either side or blocks of flats at the end - which was rightly commented on by the inspectors, still comes into the equation.

Of course, the one person who could enable the old yard to become viable again is the current occupier of ‘The Warehouse’ as it would allow access from Ravens Lane, together with enough room to actually operate as a boat yard, but then, what do I know?.  

Town Council

Across my desk this week came the list of Town Councillors and the committees they sit on (sad, or what?).

I noticed that out of 15 Town Councillors, only 11 are actually part of the committee process. Last year  at least 13 did, so I just wonder why they bothered standing for election if they didn’t want to be part of it.
Looking at attendance, at least one more finds it difficult to attend anything ang seems to just meet the minimum attendance of one meeting every 6 months. Do you think the democratic process is being served? I should point out that the Lib-Dems are good at attending, perhaps the Conservatives should either make the effort or resign.