Lockdown diary, day 35

Another stressful work day. though until faily late this evening Whitehaven has been try and sunny today, unlike much of the rest of the country according to what colleagues have said on various work calls.

Thinking hard about how to push forward to encourage Cumbria County Council to do more on holding meetings virtually: at least things have started. But we are well behind some of the other councils in Cumbria.

Interesting that one of the meetings we held by Skype - and I'm not going to say which one, as maintaining goodwill to keep pushing things forward is more important than potentially embarrassing the guilty by allowing poor attenders to be identified - had a better attendance than I can recall any physical meeting of the body concerned getting.

Most councillors of all parties work extremely hard but there are a few in all parties who ought to be able to get to a higher proportion of the meetings they are elected to attend, and I hope this will be discussed with them by their respective parties when  deciding who should stand next time. 

Equally, should not the money paid out in travel expenses for councillors to come to meetings in Kendal or Carlisle be subject to some scrutiny? For example, in asking questions about whether some of those meetings could be held using remote systems such as Skype, Zoom or Teams, saving councillors a lot of travel time, and the public purse (and those councillors who do not claim every penny they're entitled to - I don't claim for travel to group meetings, for instance) thousands of pounds.

Keep well.