Friday night football in Acton, starts tomorrow

Friday evening football sessions for young people (boys and girls) will be taking place in Acton, starting tomorrow evening at 6 p.m.  The sessions cost £1 (first session free) and will be held at the sports field adjacent to the village hall.

In addition to playing, there will, I understand, for older participants to get involved in coaching.

Part of Babergh's 'Be Active' programme, further information can be obtained from Stephanie Lloyd at Babergh on 01473 825834, or Suzanne Wells on 07432 735960.

A Grand Tour of the Ward

Chris Fry (right) with Peter Clifford

On Thursday afternoon I took Chris Fry, who is Babergh and Mid Suffolk's Head of Environment, on a guided tour of Waldingfield Ward.This was a useful exercise in itself, since it was a great chance to take one of our key officers captive for an afternoon, and to be able to bend his ear on a number of issues, such as litter, fly tipping and the state of the airfield.

The main reason that Chris came along now however is that he has been paired with me to undertake the Babergh Community Engagement 2012 in  Acton, Chilton, Great Waldingfield and Little Waldingfield.     I wrote about this in July ,  click here  and the process is now getting under way.

We spent a little time looking round each of the four parishes, and I have to say everywhere looked pretty good on what was a sparkling afternoon.  In Chilton, Parish Council Chairman Peter Clifford took us on a guided walk.  We saw Chilton Hall, the Church, and the contested Prolog Site among other things.  I have to say that I was particularly impressed by the excellent state of Chilton's footpaths.  These are all cut by the Parish Council's own contractors, and I think that the money spent by the council on this is worth every penny.

Time has been set aside by Great Waldingfield Parish Council to hear the views of residents at the next meeting on October 8 (note early start at 7 p.m.), and Chilton is also planning a meeting.  Acton and Little Waldingfield have yet to make up their minds about what, if anything to arrange.

It isn't just down to the Parish Councils however.  If you are part of a community group who would like to have its own discussion on Babergh related issues that are important to you please let me know.  Also I welcome input from individuals, and will be creating a separate tab above today which will include the key questions that we would like people to consider.

The mystery of the disappearing postboxes

Acton Post Box...gone!

Residents in Acton, and also on the Chaucer Estate in Sudbury, were shocked this morning to find that their post boxes had disappeared.

The Acton box was scheduled for removal. A request was made in January 2011 and the Parish Council gave their consent.  However it was agreed that a replacement box would be situated near the bus stop opposite Bob's Stores. The Parish Council have heard nothing further.

The removal in Sudbury is more mysterious.  Apparently the Town Clerk knows nothing about it.  There does not appear to have been any consultation and it is not known if there are plans to site another box elsewhere.

The behaviour of the Post Office seems to have been very careless.  Not only were no notices posted on the boxes to warn people of their imminent removal, but no replacement box has been provided in Acton as agreed. This means that residents have to walk a good deal further to post a letter at present, and some of them find walking any distance a problem.

Goodness knows what is happening in Sudbury.

The Post Office does seem to be a law unto itself.  My last run in with them took place a couple of years ago when the Chilton Sorting Office was undergoing reorganisation.  For several days, in common with others in the area,  we received no post at all, despite the fact that the Post Office is obliged to undertake daily deliveries to all addresses. For several weeks the service was seriously disrupted, despite the desperate endeavours of hard pressed postmen who appeared to be in training for the olympics rather than simply delivering the mail.   My complaints, and those of others, were met with flat denials and a series of misleading claims.  Gradually things got more or less back to normal, but our post now rarely arrives before lunchtime and we regularly receive misaddressed letters. This very rarely happened before.

A complaint with regard to the vanishing boxes has been lodged and it remains to be seen what will happen next.  Given my previous experience I am not very optimistic however.

The powers that be at the Post Office seem to think that the organisation is exempt from the duty that other publicly owned bodies have to engage with and consult the community.  Indeed my experiences in recent years suggest that it seems to have no concept of what customer service amounts to.   No wonder the Government is finding it difficult to dress it up for privatisation.  No one in their right mind would buy the shares

Postbox on the Chaucer Estate in Sudbury, also gone!

Little Waldingfield History Society - Witches, Mr Punch and much more....

Newly formed Little Waldingfield History Society has arranged some interesting talks later in the year.

On 31 October Pip Wright will be talking about Suffolk Witches. The subject on 21 November will be the 'The Mystery of Orford Ness', and on 5th December,  Peter Batty will explain  the history of Punch and Judy, and the evening will include a show!

In February (13) there will be a talk about Suffolk Poachers and Smugglers,and April 10 sees Jo Caruth give an insider's view into the making of the Timewatch programme.

Speakers for two other dates have yet to be arranged.

All talks will be in the Parish Rooms at Little Waldingfield, starting at 7.30 sharp.  Booking is requested as seating is limited.  The person to contact is the booking secretary, Diana Langford on 01787 248298.  Members £2, non Members £4.

If you think that you would like to attend the Society's lectures on a regular basis it is worth joining the Society.  In addition to giving you reduced entry fees as above, there are other benefits of membership including access to other local events.  Membership costs £10.  Information is availale from Diana Langford, or Andy Sheppard on sheppard-andy@sky.com.

School Bus Blues

I am delighted that the County Council as managed to see its way towards helping those parents in Acton and Great Waldingfield who were threatened with losing their school transport this week. This has been something of a cliffhanger for all!

I know that the parents concerned would be the first to acknowledge that the service that was withdrawn was in fact only a discretionary one.  This is due to the fact that they had chosen, often for very good reason, to send their children to school outside their normal catchment area.  This meant that the County Council had no absolute legal obligation to provide seats on the bus.

However, in my opinion, it is the role of government to help rather than hinder citizens, and by brokering a deal with a private bus company for the current school year, the County Council has fulfilled its clear moral obligations.  As Portia said in her great speech in the Merchant of Venice:

'earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice'.

and mercy has  clearly seasoned justice in this case.  

The area where I do feel that the County was at fault was not to inform the parents concerned of their decision to withdraw the service until a few days before term began.  Initially I found it hard to believe that officers were unaware of the problem until the eleventh hour.  However, knowing that very often in the world of government one hand does not know what the other hand is doing, suspect that there was something of the sort operating here.

This does need to change.  We pay lip service to joined up government, but much more effort is needed to make the good intentions in this respect a reality.

This is carping a little however:  well done to Graham Newman, the Cabinet Member for Education, and his team, for resolving this issue at literally the eleventh hour.  I was happy and relieved to glimpse the children waiting for the bus yesterday morning.

Acton Art Exhibiton 2012.

Once again All Saints Church, Acton has put on an excellent show that includes a wide range of  affordable art of all sorts.

This year tea and coffee are available for visitors every day, and there is a wide selection of cards on sale.  This means that even if, like me, you have no wall space left at home for new pictures, you do not need to leave empty handed.  I bought a number of attractive cards featuring flowers by Angela Harvey from Bildeston which will do well for most occasions.

As far as the artworks are concerned there is really something for every taste.  Boats and local scenes predominate, but there are also more experimental works.   Susan Quinton’s pictures of birds against a background of skeletal trees are both original and attractive, and I was impressed by Sue Eaton’s works in various media, including barbed wire! (‘Penned’).  I also liked both of Wendy Allen’s prints, particularly the fresh little abstract (‘Peace’).

Those who like something more conventional could not fail to be impressed by the places depicted by R. Siger.  I find his (her?) work really atmospheric, and particularly liked the pictures of beach huts at Wells. As usual prints of works by Roger Lane, commemorating the World War II exploits of 486 Squadron on Chilton Airfield, were available.  Dawn Mission always moves me a good deal.  The airfield remains recognisably the same, even though the planes are long gone.

If you are seeking something in a lighter vein you should make sure to find the screen to the left of the Jennens Memorial Chapel, where the works of Steve Griffin and Irene Hart illustrate more humorous aspects of the human condition in very different ways.

This year the raffle prize is a very attractive small painting of Acton Church itself.

The exhibition continues until next Sunday 9 September.  Opening hours are Monday to Saturday 11.a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Do get along if you can.  There are still many good works unsold and all profits from the exhibition will be used for the upkeep of the church.

A photo from the para-olympics

Further to my post below about Mike Stone, I have just received this picture of our friend from Great Waldingfield hard at work at the Olympic Park.