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At the time of completing this issue it’s just before midday on Good Friday. From just before 8am I was looking out across to the North Lakes Mountain tops, it was a frosty one and now we have a beautiful blue sky and I was listening to Pam and Steve on Eden FM, who else plays the Bay City Rollers?! Recently Eden FM has had a lot of positive feedback on its new playlists through the day, in the evenings and at the weekends. Its ‘Connecting our Community’ project is now getting out there more.

I’m quite excited about this edition; why? How often, if ever, do you get to write about events happening on your door step that only happen, for many of us, once in our life time. In chronological order, as a dyslexic writer, I love that word! I have shared my Penrith Lions experience on page 6; it got a lot busier in 2022 and is even busier now. Joseph’s first article on the history of Late Spring is a bit scary for the early days in the Role of the May Queen pages 6, 7 and 10. I am pleased to report that the tradition has change quite a lot since that time.

Of course, we have the Penrith Lions Club May Day Carnival returning and now less than a month away. It’s not just a Carnival, it’s the 40th Lions Carnival 1st May 2023! There’s more about this on pages 6, 16 and 17 and an opportunity to pre order you 48 page programme, filled with A LOT of history from 1981.

In that same week in May we have the local Parish elections, for me it is the Parish of Penrith, the candidates are on page 26. A historical moment for the people of Penrith and Eden as it’s with no Eden District and Cumbria County Council in place since 1st April 2023. This issue of Eden Local is quite a contrast to May 2022. I wrote that edition before the Unitary authority elections and I stressed my concerns. It is still online to read via our website. I described this as a Titanic moment in time.

“The unitary council election set sail in late 90s. The Local Government Commission for England was the body responsible for reviewing the structure of local government in England from 1992 to 2002 and it was constituted under the Local Government Act 1992.”

With protests about some of the changes in the town Saturday 1st April 2023 and the realisation that Penrith is no longer in Cumberland I believe the penny finally dropped.

I didn’t release the article back then; I was a candidate so it was published after that May 2022 Unitary election. I’m not a candidate now of course so in case you missed it here is a small reminder. Sometimes you only get to say these things once!

“As I understand in July 2021 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced that in April 2023, the non-metropolitan counties of Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset would be reorganised into unitary authorities (Iceberg dead ahead). Did you get the memo, or see the social post? Did your local council alert you to this or was it presented that it had to be stopped by your local government representatives.”

“From the top tier of Government can it impact locally on Eden? Is someone popping down to lay a few bricks, install some electric charging points, sort out our parking problems and congestion in Penrith and are they going collect our garden waste in the rural areas? We have a Lib-Dem Coalition County Council and a Rainbow Eden District Council. Is it the

Government in No 10s responsibility to communicate to the voters in Eden about what the Unitary Council means and how it affects us in the future?“

“Through not knowing what the changes ahead are and disillusioned voters not knowing what they are voting for you could be witnessing a poor turnout in our Unitary authority elections before you get to read this. Let’s hope our local government authorities have communicated what we need to know, and they prepare us for what this means to us 1st April 2023. (The ships not turning fast enough we’re going hit!)”

“We will arrive at the end of that Rainbow, will there be a pot of gold for Penrith town to take on the current services managed by the Eden District Council, or will we find we’ve been led down the yellow brick road, with no red slippers. (to be continued…)”

I had to share that, everyone is entitled to a view. Is this the low point in my introduction? Will it be a vote of politics or a vote for the people Thursday 4th May? Our two local events in this busy May period are upstaged of course possibly by two people, yes they are people, at the end of the day, flesh and blood. Who on Saturday 6th May will achieve a dream which has almost taken a lifetime.

The Coronation of King Charles III & Queen Camilla is Saturday 6th May. There will be lots happening across Eden. I know over at Greystoke there will be Coronation celebrations that day which is sure to have some Kings and Queens in attendance. My thanks to Joseph again for local Royal History article pages 20, 21 and 23. Also on page 30 and 31 we have a huge Coronation Quiz.

I’m also putting together a Coronation programme as well as the May Day Carnival programme which you can pre order, and these details are on pages 16 and 17. There also details of local businesses selling them too.

Looking ahead by the time I start the June Eden Local that we print Monday 8th - May bank holiday the Eden FM new studio on the edge of Penrith should be ready for work experience students for the first time since 2019. If you know any year 10 or year 12 students looking for placements, please get them to drop Eden FM a line via its website. All those involved in the radio and local media experience are DBS certified.

Despite how good media is in finding bad news, I hope we have some positives for you in this edition. Look how far we have come since then in 2019. I look at my journals; I have one that I write in every day and there is a stack of them next to a stack of diaries in my office going back to the early nineties. It’s not the sort of thing you would have stored on your mobile phone, just like the stack of photo albums I have half a large bookcase full of CD’s, that help renew the Eden FM database of music.

By my desk, strange enough there is also a stack of 29, yes 29, May Day Lions programmes going back to 1981 and beside me is also a photograph album, on loan from Christine Romano. The first page is titled May Day 1981 and on the last page dated 4th May 2010 is a letter of gratitude for 30 years, from the Conservative Club for organising their regular Carnival Float. The final Honey bee Float pictures. Thank you for sharing these Christine.

Meanwhile, I have the magazine layout in front me also with just a view bits to finish. This piece I’m writing, means we’ll be off to print shortly.

I’ll be back out on your doorsteps soon, maybe delivering Eden Locals or selling you a Lions Carnival May Day programme!

Take care out there.

Lee