BUSY DAYS!!

It's certainly been a busy few days.

On Thursday evening I found myself with 3 commitments, starting at 5pm with a flood defence event down in Landport. As a town councillor for the area I was of course interested to see what kind of provision the District Council was likely to be offering residents along Landport Road, but also wanted to know if there was likely to be any help available for the youth centre - at even greater risk of flooding than the houses. We had some useful conversations and hopefully have some leads we can follow up.

At 6pm it was off to the Lewes Arms for a regular meeting of the Lewes Pound CIC, of which I am treasurer. Lots to discuss including arrangements for the Do at the depot, now transformed into the Do at All Saints and I had various cheque that needed a second signature. Luckily everyone was in a hurry, so we got through all our business before I headed off to the town hall for a meeting of the Railway Land Wildlife Trust where I represent the town council. Lots of discussion on feedback from the Linklater Pavilion event - which reminds me I promised to find out if they are still getting the profits from the bar that evening; on a big event next year to tie in with the year of Biodiversity; and on the ranger's annual report amongst other things. I always come away impressed by the hard work so many people are doing in connection with the Railway Land.

Friday morning up early for an all day conference on health services in rural Sussex. Perhaps Lewes is hardly rural, but all the same part of the whole pattern of care provision and always good to have look at the wider picture. The first speaker from Action in Rural Sussex had us all having fun with plasticine - I can hardly remember the last time I handled the stuff - maybe when Madeleine my daughter was small (and she is now in her early 30's, impossible as it seems).

Light relief in the evening when we went to Lewes Film Club to see Casablanca - they just don't make films like that any more. It is full of great one-liners - so often quoted that you almost forget their context within a deeply romantic film with wonderful music. Even more amazing to realise is that it was made in 1942 and so must have been part of the propaganda effort to persuade people that it was worth all the effort to stand up to the Nazis. Yes it's there, but all the same it ends up as an almost perfect film with great acting.

Saturday - again out all day at an open space event arranged to discuss community views on the future of the North Street/Phoenix area in Lewes. Its been the subject of a couple of deeply controversial development proposals, but the the company which has bought up a lot of the land (and extant business premises) has gone bankrupt, so it looks as if the administrator will be looking to sell in the new year. This offers an opportunity for the Lewes Community Land Trust to possibly get a partnership deal with the Guinness Trust to buy some or all of the sites and allow it to develop organically, alongside some affordable housing. Apparently something like 87 people were present for all or part of the day, which is a lot of interest for a Saturday in the run up to Xmas. A number of them clearly had little or no idea what to expect from an open space event - some just left, but others who were sceptical at the beginning obviously felt by the end that a lot of useful ideas had emerged. I had no idea there was so much artistic stuff going on down there and the artists definitely don't want to lose their relatively cheap spaces to a mega commercial development. I hosted a group on 'Does North Street need flood defences?' One person who came said he hope I was being rhetorical, but the feeling at various groups during the day was definitely that the area needs to be flood resilient, rather than protected by the kind of flood wall offered up by the commercial developers. More meetings needed, especially if the community hopes to raise money to buy land there, but a great start to the process.

After all that it's been great to have a quiet day at home today Sunday, catching up with newspapers and email mostly, as well as finding time for this blog.