1000 Posts!

This is the 1000^th post on my website.

If I had been told at the end of January 2007, when I posted the first contribution, that I would still be blogging away over 7 years later I would probably have been surprised.  Despite one’s best intentions, keeping what amounts to an electronic journal going is sometimes a bit of a struggle, and indeed there have been times when I have been tempted to stop.  Somehow or other however the urge to communicate has won the day, and looking back over the entries I am pleased about that.

It seems that the site has been read and on the whole enjoyed by a good number of people, both locally and as far afield as the U.S and Japan, and I now have a lovely illustrated record of my local government life in and around South Suffolk, plus reminders of some holidays and cultural excursions elsewhere.

The earliest posts from the early months of 2007 see me setting out my stall as a fledgling local politician.  I had been approached by Colin Spence, the County Councillor for Waldingfield and Sudbury East, mainly because as he so succinctly put it at the time ‘there really isn’t anyone else’.

One of the earlier posts in 2008 complains about the fact that the increase in Babergh's grant from central government was likely to be below the level of inflation in coming years.  Below the level of inflation!  What would we have thought if we had known that in fact within a few years it would be slashed by around 30% and I would find myself with the job of coping with this, not just for South Suffolk but for the County as a whole.

My early comments seem a bit earnest now… perhaps as time has gone on and I have become a more practiced political animal I have relaxed a little, but many of the topics about which I wrote are still rumbling along:controversial planning issues at Babergh, spending elusive Section 106 funding,  and, of course, the perennial chestnuts: Chilton Woods, speeding, and the need to recycle our waste.   

Other matters that exercised us then have, for now, receded.  There was of course a Labour Government in the early days and, as alluded to above, councils were having a great time spending away!  Suffolk was resisting the pressure to become a Unitary authority, parking charges in Sudbury were the great controversy of the day, and we were fighting off the attempt to open an enormous quarry between Chilton and Great Waldingfield.

Some of these latter issues, like sleeping dragons in their caves, are merely waiting to raise their drowsy heads once again. Others will slumber on. Perhaps persistent readers of the site will encounter their sulpherous breath again in one of the next 1000 entries.

Activities this weekend at Old School Wood

I had not been down to Old School Wood, the community woodland in Great Waldingfield, this year until I took my camera down this morning  The site really has come on very well, having put on a lot of growth, and it is a very pleasant place to spend an hour or so.  A pleasant walk over to Little Waldingfield can be started from the wood as well.

This weekend, on Saturday, between 10 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. there is a Discover Great Waldingfield Churchyard and Old School Wood event supported by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.  There will be activities for all the family, including guided walks at 10.30 a.m., pond dipping, owl pellet investigation, invertebrate hunting, a family trail and children's craft activities.

Parking is available at the Church, as are loo facilities.

Bring a picnic and stay for informal fun in the afternoon.  For more information contact sara.holman@suffolkwildlifetrust.org, 07824 516762.

View from the pond

Love food, hate waste ?

As part of briefing myself for my new role as OC Waste at Suffolk County Council I took myself on a course this week to learn about how to reduce food waste.

It is a shocking fact that 32% of what is thrown away in Suffolk is food that we find, for one reason or another, surplus to requirements.  This amounts to a massive 43,691 tonnes.  Setting aside the very real environmental issues, wasting food is an expensive business, both for our residents and for the council that has the responsibility for its disposal.

It has been estimated that money spent on binned food costs each family up to £700 per annum.   It also costs the council a great deal of money every year to dispose of the rubbish that results since it cannot be recycled and must go into landfill. In these cash strapped times this is a serious consideration.  I do not have a number for Suffolk (at present), but it costs the London Boroughs some £50 million a year to dispose of their food waste.

 

 The course was very instructive and entertaining.  It was run under the auspices of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, backed by the Government, which has all sorts of on line resources to encourage the reduction of food waste on its website here

The five key messages we learned on the course are

• Plan ahead
• Understand date marks and food labels
• Store food sensibly (especially in the freezer)
• Don’t over cater  (this has health benefits too!)
• Use your leftovers!

‘All common sense’  I hear you say….but it is amazing how many of us are failing to use our heads in the kitchen, and wasting good money in the process.

City Lunch Club

Every so often the South Suffolk Conservative Association hosts a political lunch in the City for Suffolk folk working in London.   They are often joined by some intrepid country mice who feel up to making the journey to Town.

In the past we have had some interesting guests including Ken Clark and David Willetts.  The lunch is usually well attended, well presented, and quite takes me back to the old days!

This week we were lucky enough to welcome as a guest Mark Field M.P. , pictured here with County Councillor for Clare, Mary Evans.  Mark is the Member of Parliament for the City of London and Westminster.  Not suprisingly, following the European elections the conversation centred on European matters and our membership of the EU.  Present at the lunch were some representatives from trade organisations representing city firms, and all complained bitterly about the amount of red tape and regulation that comes out of Brussels.  I do find it hard to believe that our membership of the EU is really a net benefit for Britain give the importance to the economy of the financial services industry.

We are hoping to invite the MEP for the East of England Vicky Ford to our next lunch.  She sits on an important finance committee in Europe, as has much of interest to say.   If you are interested in coming along do let me know.  You do not have to be a member of the Conservative Party, although party members generally have preferential booking rights.

Lavenham Forum

The village of Lavenham is a great draw for visitors to Suffolk.  However, when worrying about everyday council matters such as planning, rights of way, traffic and the like  it is possible to see Lavenham, as ‘just another place’ to sort out!

Of course this is far from the truth, and the recent launch of the Lavenham Forum has reminded me about the village’s tremendous value as a tourist destination, and its great importance to the local economy.   The Lavenham Forum, which incorporates the Lavenham Merchants Guild, brings together over 60 businesses that operate in the Lavenham area.  The aim is to improve communication between different organisations, and, by supporting the interests of business, to support the community as a whole.

Topics that may well be addressed by the Forum in coming months and years include promotion of the village generally, better visitor management,  superfast broadband, ideas for village festivals etc. etc.  An early achievement has been the launch of the Lavenham ap, which includes interesting historical data and an interactive map for visitors, real and virtual.  To download the ap, available free on Apple and Android phones, enter Lavenham in the ap store search.

If you have a business in or near Lavenham , and wish to participate in the Forum, contact caroleholland@btinternet.com.

There is a £25 registration fee.   The first newsletter has just been published.

Ancestral voices and more in Little Waldingfield

Having been busier than usual I am afraid that I have left it rather late to report on the truly wonderful evening that was hosted in St. Lawrence’s Church by the Little Waldingfield History Society on May 14.

A well filled church was transported through history by local performers, Ancestral Voices, who, with great accomplishment related the experiences of travellers through Suffolk from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.  Travel tales about one’s own area are always interesting,  seeing the familiar through the eyes of a stranger, and this is even more true when one travels back in time. I hope that we will see Ancestral Voices once again in Little Waldingfield in the future.

The Society’s next even will have a really local focus.  On 11^th June the ever popular Pip Wright will present Lady Alice de Bryene of Acton.

Andy Sheppard writes:-

Lady Alice was a Suffolk noblewoman who maintained a complete record of food and drink consumed in her significant mediaeval household between October  1412 and September 1413.  Somehow the record book survived, and Pip will take us through the details and enthral us with his piercing insight to this far away time.’

Proceedings start at 7.30 p.m. in the Parish Rooms, and I suggest that you eat before you come.

Community Right to bid under scrutiny.

Since last year due to the passing of the Localism Act, local organisations wishing to secure assets such as pubs or shops in their village or town, have had a new right called the Community Right to Bid.  Under this right a community group has the right to register interest at the District Council, so that if an asset comes up for sale they have a window of opportunity to try to raise the money to purchase it on behalf of the community.

Recently Chilton Parish Council has successfully registered an interest in the Tree Nursery on the edge of the airfield and also the walkway to Chilton Church, both currently owned by the County Council.

On Wednesday of last week the Babergh and Mid Suffolk Joint Scrutiny Committee heard evidence from three other villages, all of which have experienced different outcomes when trying to exercise their powers under this new legislation.

We heard from groups that wanted to secure, respectively, a village shop, the car park and public toilets adjacent to a pub site, and a local pub.  The latter case was the attempt by Thorpe Morieux Parish Council to register an interest in the Bull, a hostelry that received a glowing report for its food on Trip Advisor, but recently closed.

District Council officers have been trying to assist with these bids.   It became clear during the meeting  that the complexities of planning legislation, particularly in respect of permitted development rights, combined with the fact that the owner of the property has the right to refuse to sell to the group, makes exercising the right quite difficult in some circumstances.

Nonetheless securing the pub car park turned out well. The village shop acquisition to date has not been successful due to the refusal of the owner of the property to contemplate a sale. Thorpe Morieux Parish Council has been unfortunate in that their attempt to register the pub met resistance and was one of the earliest cases to go to appeal.  Lessons have been learned from this, and the body of case law has now built up.   Accordingly it is thought that the next attempt will fare better.

It would be sad if these useful rights, which should result in the conservation of much needed facilities in rural areas, are rendered toothless by needless complexity and property owner resistance.  The Scrutiny Committee, having listened to the evidence,  felt however that officers at  Babergh and MSDC are doing all they can to assist community groups to exercise their new rights.