White Flag

I saw this flag flying over the Town Hall on Saturday 1st April, and wondered if it was some sort of April Fool joke. Seems I was almost right, as this is the flag of the new Westmorland and Furness council which came into being on that date, replacing the old South Lakeland District Council / Cumbria County Council setup that had existed since the last changes in 1974, when Cumbria was created as a county from the old counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and part of Lancashire.
As I understand it, Westmorland and Furness is now the county where I live, but it’s actually a Unitary Authority which combines the powers of a non metropolitan county and the district councils. Cumbria continues to exist as a ceremonial county, because it has a Lord Lieutenant, and services like Cumbria Constabulary and Cumbria Fire Service will continue to exist but will now be reporting to two different authorities - W&F in the south and Cumberland in the north. Clear? No, me neither!
All I do know is that my council tax has gone up - though I suspect that would have been the case whoever was responsible for collecting it! No doubt there will be a cost for everything to be rebranded, but I assume that is just coming out of general funds. Certainly, the rise in council tax was less than I thought it would be - maybe the larger area has produced economies of scale.
As you can see, it was another sunny day, which was most welcome after yesterday’s drizzle. It meant I could have a pleasant walk into town for my eye test. It was the same optometrist doing the re-test, which I wasn’t entirely happy about. But he did apologise for the fact that something had obviously gone wrong and really took his time to ensure he got it right this time.
Surprise, surprise it was a totally different result this time. Rather than the big change he had come up with last time, there was only a slight change from my current prescription. In fact, it was so small a change, I could have carried on with my current glasses! Having shelled out a lot of money on new frames though, I thought I might as well have the most up to date lenses fitted. They were very apologetic about not getting it right last time, but I accept that mistakes can happen. As long as it’s all sorted eventually, it’s not worth kicking up a fuss as it doesn’t solve anything and just leads to bad feeling.
All I have to do now is wait another couple of weeks for the new lenses to be made and fitted. Let’s hope the sun will still be shining then so I can show off my new shades!