| Moving to Brighton | ||
| Promotion entailed moving and, although I hoped to get a local posting somewhere around Oxford it was not to be. So it was that promotion meant not only changing my department but also my residence. A bitter blow for both of us. We were particularly attached to the Roundhouse and to Oxford. When my posting came through it was to the National assistance Board at Hove in Sussex. I spent several months finding suitable accommodation in the Brighton district last lodging in Brighton during the week and returning to Oxford at the weekends.
Eventually I found Deanfield | The work of the district officer in the National assistance Board could be a very stressful one depending on the type of area you were allotted to. My area of Hove was next to the border of Brighton. An area of large houses almost all converted to a large number of very small flats. Brighton then seemed to me to be a very poorly paid area. There were also a great number of retired people. My stress increased when I took on the role of officer in charge of the caller section. My staff had the unhappy job of interviewing people who were claiming to be destitute and in immediate need of money. My job was to decide whether to give or not to give that help. At various times during this period Eileen would decide that she wished to return closer to Oxford. I moved both to Oxford and Crawley to meet wishes, only for her to change her mind . However our home remained in Brighton. It was time for a change and I obtained a post with the Land Commission at Reading. Again this entailed a living away from home. I moved to another branch of the Land Commission at Croydon, commuting by train each day. This was a department set up by it the Labour government with the purpose of taxing the capital gain in respect of land sales. My area of activity was at South Kent and I made it my business to visit planning offices and building inspectors in that area at least one day each week. I got to know a South Kent very well. At the end of two years with the Land Commission it became obvious to me that there would be a change of government and with it the disbandment of the Land Commission. I therefore sought and obtained a new post with the South Eastern regional office of British Telecom. This was still a government department and organisation and staff training was much the same as I found it in the previous departments. Training consisted of spending one week with the person whose job I was taking over. I found myself with the title of the Regional Billing liaison officer | |
