As winter finally arrives with a vengeance, with trees blown down and the River Wye bursting its banks, an army of redwing birds nest in the derelict pigpen in the top muddy field. The new kitten, Lily, is settling in very well... still seems feral, but that only adds to her feisty personality and hopefully she will become a champion mouser.
I went to the Hay Cats Protection League winter fair a couple of weekends ago. Cathy, the organiser and cat-rescuer was lamenting the fact that most of the cats brought in are from farms where the farmers don't spay or neuter the animal. One farm had over 30 kittens which Cathy and her team traps, takes away and then the laborious process of worming, vetting and re-homing begins.
If only the farmers would neuter their cats there wouldn't be this growing problem. The Hay Cat Rescue is full to the brim, so many abandoned cats as well as these feral ones. The recession seems to be adding to this and people are just dumping their animals. Things can only get worse. That is why I champion and support every effort Cathy does - it may seem an uphill battle but little Lily is now happily re-homed as are many others, including her sister Houdini.
The Hay versus supermarket saga continues. Plan B Facebook site got messy as pro-supermarket people joined and started hurling abuse at the antis. One wonders whether this was a deliberate campaign set up by the supermarket themselves.
Powys County Council continue to shock. There was a call for an open meeting from our two local MPs. Powys CC 'forgot' to actually tell them the date and also knocked off a load of stakeholders who wanted to attend. However, Hay now has a very well organised fighting group set up to challenge Powys and their continued dealings with Gaufron, the mysterious 'developer'.
Here is a recent email from a member of said group to a Chief Powys County Councillor Jeremy Patterson...
"Dear Mr Pattersen,
Further to your e-mail of December 1st could you kindly inform whether the meeting date of 19th December which has been announced to the Hay Town Council (although not to Roger Williams MP, Kirsty Williams MEP, a number of stakeholder groups which were on the list put forward by Cllr Ratcliffe, or myself as a member of the public who has formally stated an intention to be present as a stakeholder), and which has not been published on Powys CC public calendar of meetings, is the stakeholder meeting that you have indicated in your mail below? Does Powys CC claim this meeting to be a public or a private meeting? Could you please inform whether members of the press are to be excluded from the meeting and if so on what grounds?
Seems Powys County Council are either totally inept or are consciously trying to scupper meetings....
Watch this space over the next few weeks...