Plots Thickening

Forget the fact that the Festival starts tomorrow, usually the big news of the year.
Today's B&R has several juicy stories that have nothing to do with the Festival.
Front page news has "CRAP are parking mad". Several shop owners in Hay have banded together to protest about the changes to the parking regime now that the Council have taken over responsibility from the police. They don't like the tough enforcement, and think it will be bad for trade.
I tend to see it from the other side. As a non-driver, I see people parking in streets that are too narrow, on double yellow lines, because they are selfish and inconsiderate and too lazy to walk a few yards from a legal parking spot. Hence the constant traffic chaos around the turning from Broad Street to the bridge - because people just abandon their cars there in the way of all the lorries, coaches and other big vehicles that need to turn there. I've been watching it for twenty years, getting worse, and it's about time people were penalised for parking there.
I dare say a parking permit for residents in the residential areas of town may be a good idea - but in the centre a car in the way can mean that a delivery van can't get near the shop they're delivering to (which often happens around the Clock Tower).
And all this furore is before the Council have actually changed anything - so far they say they're just enforcing the same rules that the police enforced.

And then there's Hay Castle, and Tamara Gordon who has started a Facebook campaign to buy it for the People. She also has a blog called Buy Hay Castle on Wordpress. Rumour has it that the Castle has actually been sold, but the estate agents say that all the paperwork has not been completed yet, so it's all still up in the air for now.

And Chris Bradshaw has donated a copy of his book The Green Book of Olwen Ellis to the Library. He's pictured with the librarian, Jayne, next to a piece about Salem Chapel Art Gallery, which is having a private view of the new exhibition on Friday evening, with the exhibition opening properly on the Saturday. Chris is on the committee there, too. There's a nice obituary of Geoff Evans with the piece.