At today’s council meeting Babergh councillors voted to
enter into a Community Covenant with the Armed forces.
This Covenant is intended to complement at a local level the
Armed Forces Covenant that has been signed by the Government on behalf of the
nation as a whole. There are already
over 150 of these local agreements in place across the United Kingdom. More information is available on the Ministry
of Defence website.here
The Covenant has a number of aims, one of which is to support the armed forces in the local area, and, of course, Babergh has its fair share of these. Their other aims are
- To nurture public understanding and awareness of issues affecting the armed services.·
- To recognise and remember the sacrifices faced by the armed services community.·
- To encourage activities which integrate local armed service personnel and their families into the local community, and also which enable representatives of the services to support the local community through projects and community support activities
There is already one example of the final aim above being
achieved in South Suffolk. The Safer
Neighbourhood Police Teams, with Community Safety Officers, have on a number of occasions worked with service personnel
in Colchester and also in Wattisham to give young people the opportunity to
have a day out with the forces, trying assault courses and the like.
A task force is likely to be set up at the council in order to develop an
action plan, so that concrete results from the Covenant benefit both our local
servicemen and the community as a whole.
The exercise is not intended to be a substitute for welfare initiatives
that should be the remit of the Ministry of Defence, although the council is
likely to work alongside local service charities, as they would with other
partners in voluntary sector, to fulfil the Covenant’s aims.
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