IT’S been a momentous week in local government, and that’s leaving aside the spectacular collapse of Labour support as evidenced in the results of Thursday’s local elections throughout the country.

WIND turbines are not the answer to the problem of how to create green, pollution-free power in a world which is increasingly electricity hungry.

THE effects of the credit crunch threaten to hover over the changing face of Penrith. As we report this week, the multi-million pound New Squares development has been given final approval by Eden Council and plans have been submitted for 800 new homes in the High Carleton area over the next 10 years.

THERE’S encouraging news this week for the mounting number of campaigners in Cumbria who are determined not to allow inland parts of the county to become the wind farm capital of the country.

WAY back in history in the days when people could smoke in public without having to shout “unclean” or hang a bell around their necks, there used to be places called pubs. You might remember them. They were quirky places which had their own particular smell and atmosphere. They sold something called beer and were visited by a now almost extinct species called “blokes”.

EDEN Council’s decision to back off from forcibly removing personal items left on graves at Penrith cemetery from tomorrow thankfully avoids the potential for distressing scenes of bereaved families removing mementos and their personal tributes to those they have lost, often in tragic circumstances.