Good Friday

The first day of the long Easter weekend. Yesterday was busy, trying to do all the bits that needed doing before Municipal Buildings closed for the weekend. I had a good meeting about the agenda for the Western Area Partnership meeting next month, and agreed a community engagement idea to develop with the relevant officers. Felt much more positive about the Partnership, partly as a result of discussions with people from other parts of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday on my course.
The Statement of Persons nominated was published officially and it was a relief to see that all of our candidates are in place and validly nominated. I was sad to see the list of nominations for Billingham Town Council and to see how few people other than Labour party borough council candidates had put themselves forward for the Town council. I can't see how some of those Labour people can hope to have the time to devote to the town council if they're on the Stockton Cabinet again. But several of the people who've worked so hard to establish the idea of the Town Council then didn't decide to stand for election to it. I can't understand it.
Egglescliffe Parish again has too few nominations so there won't be an election, and similarly Preston. In fact the only ones that are having elections are the ones where there's a real issue like Yarm, Ingleby, Thornaby and Billingham. I don't know whether people in Egglescliffe and Preston are satisfied with their councillors or just don't see any hope of getting better ones.
Sadly, this morning a family crisis arose and so I spent a large part of the day at the hospital, seeing yet again how wonderfully the staff cope despite long shifts and little thanks. For the first time in I don't know how many years I didn't make hot cross buns for this morning and didn't get soup made for lunch. Two more traditions bite the dust. Never mind. I also missed the ecumenical walk of witness this morning carrying the cross into Yarm, so I hope there was a good turnout. It's one of the very few days of the year when something overtly Christian happens in the area and it's the best possible day for it.