A merger between Chilton and Subury? I don't think so.

There has been some discussion to the effect that it would be a good idea for Chilton Parish Council, Great Cornard Parish Council and Sudbury Town Council to merge.

Well, for the record I want to make it clear that, while I have no problem at all with co-operation between these bodies to save money (by sharing the services of the Community Warden, or of a PCSO for example), there is no way that I would support such a merger. Chilton is fine as it is.

What we want is more community engagement from the bottom up, not top down mergers at a local level that will reduce the number of parish and town Councillors (who incidentally, unlike District Councillors, receive no reward for their efforts). Each community needs a number of strong elected champions to fight their corner.

The recent public meeting at Acton showed this need in action. The proceedings were very well supported by all the Parish Council Chairmen in the Ward, who were able to bring the distinct view of their own communities to bear on the general discussion, and yet were able to combine to speak with one voice as appropriate.

The motivation of those who are proposing a merger are somewhat obscure, but they may have been influenced by the proposal to merge Babergh with Mid Suffolk District council to create one large District Council for the whole of the central area of the county. This, for a number of reasons, is a completely different sort of proposal, which would save a great deal of money, and, despite reducing the number of councillors by almost 50 percent, would not, in my view, seriously damage democratic representation.