Off to a meeting of the first meeting of Babergh District Council Conservative Group in the new governance cycle. Lots of welcome and congratulation all round. The chairperson Jennie Jenkins deals with us all confidently and efficiently.

I am to be recommended for Vice Chair of the Overview & Scrutiny (Stewardship) Committee and for Chairmanship of the Information Management Technology Group (which is in dormancy pending creation as a joint committee with Mid Suffolk). I am to keep my positions on the Licensing & Appeals Committees as well as on the Joint Implementation Scrutiny Committee.

At long last we have seen the finished leaflet dealing with getting out the yes vote for the merger referendum. It’s not my idea of an encouraging note. It reads more like a suicide note and will convince few people to follow our lead. The Council’s own document which was sent out with the voting papers does not engage the citizen’s emotions and neither does our leaflet. I shall be delivering the leaflets with reluctance.