Good to see return of local watchdog

The meeting room in the Community Education Unit was packed to capacity – which made a nice change to many of the meetings I had attended there in the past when I had my pick of seats.

There were a few familiar faces around the table and it was good to see them back too, along with new members hungry to help their town and to stand up to anything that seeks to threaten it.

When you live in the shadow of a major petrochemical industry which sometimes seems to operate its own set of rules it’s good to have a voice to stand up for you.

A certain private company’s burning desire to close off a public road was just one of the issues brought up at the first community council meeting, along with the old favourites like anti-social behaviour and dog fouling.

Let’s hope residents continue to take an interest in their town and support the community council with their attendance at the monthly meetings – the next one taking place tonight (Thursday) at 7pm in the Abbots Road Education Unit.

Talking about comebacks, I’m not looking forward to Eric Clapton’s new album I Still Do, released tomorrow (Friday).

Reading Dawn Renton’s well-researched article on Clapton in this week’s paper did not exactly fill me with a ton of anticipation for the new long player. Slowhand’s last two albums should have come with a “do not operate heavy machinery while listening to this” warning sticker.

I suppose at 70-plus auld Eric is getting a bit long in the gnashers to be cranking up the amp.