This winter has already thrown some challenges at us, with a brief snowy event, which was particularly beautiful on the moors and then Storm Darragh.

Main concern this month has been the power cut which affected some very vulnerable people in my area. Our telephones now are nearly all digital, the consequence of which is no power therefore no phone available. This concerns me since the only way to make a call would be to get in the car and drive to signal or to have a dual-purpose SIM which automatically finds the nearest signal. So, if one of our elderly residents needed to call 999, they simply could not have done this. There were 90-year-olds left without power for four days.

Thankfully family and neighbours came to help but still the situation exists whereby if an emergency occurs in a power cut the services cannot be easily contacted. I have followed this up with Linda Taylor and the portfolio holder who have subsequently contacted the emergency services and alerted them to this problem. I will be following this up with the authorities and through parish councils to see what we can do.

As our winters seem to be windier and damaging, I would suggest keeping a power bank fully charged, and plenty of torches to hand. National Grid will also make a compensatory pay out if you have suffered more than 48 hours of lost power.

The new National Planning Policy Framework is available to read online at the.gov.uk site. I thought it did not stray too far from the previous model with a few interesting updates, particularly the one about not placing fast food outlets near schools and colleges!

As a member of East Planning Committee, I know we are also keeping a close eye on proposals to centralise planning decisions, this is undemocratic and completely disregards the concerns of our communities, who of course have a much clearer knowledge of the matters that really make a difference to people’s lives.

Cornwall Councils’ financial situation has not been improved by receiving less allocation from the incoming Labour government, which is much as expected since they have no interest in rural communities and probably don’t know where Cornwall is.

So, we are in a precarious financial state with an almost impossible situation of increased demand for Adult Social Care and emergency housing. We are running the Council as efficiently as we can whilst providing for those most in need.

I was happy to donate a couple of Christmas trees on the roundabouts in Bodmin, these were kindly planted by Cormac elves as I had a nasty flu bug and discounted by Bodmin Nursery. They are of fine stock and hopefully they will flourish for years to come.