Clevedon Marine Pool

A Day Out! With People!!! Gosh!

We met up with friends at a rather underwhelming National Trust Tyntesfield, where the house was closed as expected and the gardens were somewhat drab, which wasn't. After a brief wander we nipped down to the promenade at Clevedon.

I was about to offer you a shot of the pier, but I did that a while back. And to be honest there's this the surreal sight of people choosing to swim in the not much above freezing water of the marine pool (water refreshed at every high tide, fresh and chewy from the oily brown Bristol Channel!)

I'm currently scrolling through ever more emails regarding next Tuesday's Annual Parish Council Meeting. If you want surreal, consider this. The Coronavirus Act 2020 expired yesterday...

The Act gave Parish Councils the authority to meet remotely, and without new legislation and in the light of a failed High Court challenge we are once more required to meet face to face and our meetings are open to public attendance.

Not every councillor or other attendee public, media or staff has had a full vaccination, and indeed some may have chosen not to have one at all (and there is no power to compel either vaccination or admission thereof.) We cannot know if anyone is contagious, and although the risk might seem low it is not possible to ignore.

To meet in an enclosed indoor environment presents unacceptable risks to councillors and members of the public that cannot be mitigated through separation or airflow. To not meet breaches law too.

The responsibility for this fiasco lies at the door of our very own selfservative MP, Luke Hall, who claimed he was the Minister in charge of the legislation, explained how well he understood our plight but wasn't interested in trying to seek a solution.

Currently we are looking at the weather forecast with a view to holding a shortened but legal meeting sat in our cars in the local car park. As chairman (outgoing but who knows) I have the vocal projection for this task, but if you voted Conservative yesterday, well, you know...

Couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery?