Grey days at school..... and protest marches in Pocklington

Well, this final week of school before the half term has been a bit of a downer and no mistake. Starts off with me in a prime funk after a weekend away. Then I just run into a wall of work as soon as I'm back. Every day this week has seen me start with the very best of intentions and then get bogged down with jobs that can't be finished, work that is so horribly bitty and unending.

To top it all off, it seems that everyone at school is under a horrible grey cloud at the moment. All is not well it seems.

Finally, tonight I came in and pretty much collapsed into the chair. Absolute exhaustion had got me. So it was possibly the worst time for dear old dad to ring up and ask me if I'd forgotten the planned protest march heading off in half an hour from then. I wasn't in the mood for this. Did he not realise all I wanted to do was sink into an exhausted slumber?

The idea of protest marches in Pocklington is rather new. Being a rather sleepy little town in the shadow of the Yorkshire wolds we're not usually required to arrange angry mobs to go rampaging around the streets of the town chanting slogans. But there's a growing frustration in the town regarding East Riding Council's decision to bring in car parking charges to the town. It came to light a few months agao and since then opposition has been building. Liek I said, we're a rathe rquiet town, not really benefitting from the tourism of the nearby coast or the attractions of York, Beverley and Bridlington. But ERYC have got it into their heads that they should really have one homogenous charging policy for their car parks. On the face of it, it does make sense. But get deeper into it and the disparity between us and other, larger towns means that to charge for parking in the town would more than likely seriously harm the future prosperity of Pocklington.

But ERYC seem committed to bringing them in. Which is why about 200 people marched from the town centre to the rugby club where the council were holding a consultation event.

I'd honestly decided not to go. But I did have to go to the post office and on the way back found myself having to walk alongside the growing crowd of people waiting for the off. Guilt got the better of me and Molly and I found ourselves joining the crowd on our first ever family protest march. Strange times.