The consultation document is now public and available on http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/your-council/decision-making/consultations/consultation-children-s-centre-services-across-suffolk/
Hard copies will be available at the Children’s Centres from 1st August. The consultation runs until the 16th October.
More comment later…
Local Colour
Brett River Children’s Centre
In an ideal world, politicians (on behalf of the people) would set the policy, civic officers would work up proposals and then with everything being synchronised the world would march on to a new and better existence. But mankind are not angels and we are not perfect and quite often there appears to be a mismatch between what was said, what was heard and what was produced.
We can all agree that the Council’s functions include striving for continual improvement in servicing the needs of the residents and the concomitant mandate to provide value for money. Thus the provision of children’s services is scheduled by Suffolk County Council for review and remodelling as necessary.
And then the mismatch occurred between desire and action. At the Council meeting on the 17th July it was proposed that the Council would consult on merging the Brett River Children’s Centre with Cherry Blossom Children’s Centre, East Bergholt and close the building currently used by Brett River. When I first read the document at home there was an outbreak of expletive driven thunder and lightning and got ready to ride off into battle.
I subsequently obtained from my Council Leader an unequivocal undertaking that this was to be a genuine consultation and not a cynical move to give democratic legitimacy to a decision already taken. I promised a robust response to the consultation. Similarly before the main Council meeting I obtained the same undertaking from the Portfolio Holder. And at the main meeting he stated that he did not become elected in order to reduce services and close buildings.
The consultation period will run for two months to get us over the Summer holidays. The consultation document will be available on line and in hard copy. I am arranging to obtain hard copies of the consultation document so that it is fully available to all concerned.
If a hard copy is required then please respond to this posting
Am I bothered by all this? Yes I am – because officers cannot know my locality as well as I do. Similarly I am not as familiar as they are with their areas of expertise. That is why they are employed. But I am elected to front up for Hadleigh’s residents whether they vote for me or not.
There are a number of flaws in the consultation document and the ideas on which it is based.
My role is to protect and promote the well being of our town and I am always open to ideas. To support me in my endeavours I need as many people as possible to respond to the consultation. Responses can be by email or letter to the Assistant Director – Early Help and Specialist Services. Responses can be short and pithy or they can be as detailed as an E.U. regulation. What matters is that we show that our needs cannot be met by merging with East Bergholt.
As soon as the consultation is published, I’ll put details on Facebook and on this blog – then we can go forward together towards the smell of smoke and the sound of gunfire. What we should not be doing is responding to half truths and the hysterics of the ignorant whose agendas may not be in chime with our own.
Hadleigh & District Angling Society (HADAS)
Fishing is the largest participatory sport in England. In Hadleigh we are blessed with a number of nearby commercial sporting fishing ponds and we also have the Hadleigh & District Angling Society (HADAS). I allocated £500 from my County Councillor’s Locality Budget for the purchase of fishing tackle for the junior section of the club. They were used for a taster event held on the 12th July. The taster was very successful. Over fifty children turned up along with their parents and guardians to enjoy a nice gentle day in the fresh air. The fishing tackle will be retained for use at future organised matches and events for juniors.
The HADAS committee is full of hands on people who value their heritage and wish to pass it onto future generations. Hence my willingness to use the Locality Budget to support the junior fishing activity and to part fund their (previously enjoyed and lovingly restored) grass cutter.
The Society was established in 1929 to bring together people with a common purpose to preserve, and try and keep available fishing for local people. Membership of the Society in its first season numbered twenty two. The Society was temporarily disbanded during the Second World War, and was reformed in 1947. Over the years the Society has expanded their fishing rights along the Brett River and over local ponds and reservoirs.
Hadleigh Open Gardens
The Friends of St. Mary’s are the fund raising arm of The St. Mary’s Hadleigh Church Trust – a charity formed to assist with the benefit and upkeep of the Church building and its surroundings.
Today they hosted the second Hadleigh Open Gardens Day – sixteen gardens were open to the public throughout Hadleigh. We opened our garden last year but this year we stood back and put our focus elsewhere. I had in any case seen some of the gardens as I delivered the “garden pack” to a few exhibitors.
s Lunches (an innovation this s Lunch as well as taking the money.
The food department served over fifty meals, so despite the poor weather and competition from the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Rugby Club Beer Festival I think they did quite well. The event attracts people from outside Hadleigh and last year we even had visitors from Texas. Elsewhere in the Church were the home made cake and plants stalls.
Next week the Deanery are holding the fundraising event Stand Up for Chairs. This is focused on raising funds to purchase the chairs which are to replace the pews. Over thirty thousand pounds has been raised so far but more is required.
The Church currently has a selection of chairs on display and you have the opportunity to vote for your preferences.
So turn up on Saturday and if you can’t find as excuse to spend money on the stalls then just donate it!
I look forward to seeing you there.
Shallow Puddles
We’ve recently taken out a subscription to the Spectator.
One of the joys of this magazine is the weekly competition and at the beginning of the month readers were invited to invent proverbs that sound profound but have no meaning (although if you search hard enough you can find meaning in everything). The best entries contained just the promise of profound meaning. Thus my favourite is “the shallow puddle floods no meadows”. Other enigmatic sayings to commit to memory and use again are:
When you don’t know where you are going , every route is a shortcut.
The overcoat of deceit will not deter the lizard of oblivion.
Beware the bridge that stops halfway across.
A chiropodist will not remember you by the colour of your eyes.
Watch this space for shallow puddle usage
South Cosford and Beyond
Last week saw a by election in the South Cosford ward of Babergh District. The ward covers 4,311 hectares and holds 2,139 residents in 905 houses. The average age is 41 y.o. Hadleigh North (which is represented by two District Councillors) contains 3,417 residents in 1,510 dwellings. The average age of the residents is 42.5 years.
The seat was previously held by Dawn Kendall (Conservative).
The results were as follows: Robert Lindsay, (G) 346, David Talbot Clarke (C) 330, Stephen Laing (UKIP) 219, Angela Wiltshire (L) 72. Majority 16. Turnout 54.7%.
The turnout was quite high for a local election – so full marks to all the workers who knocked on doors and delivered leaflets.
Mr Lindsay will be the only Green on Babergh and the question is will he sit on his own (unattached from any political grouping) or will he align himself to one of the groups – Conservative (unlikely), Labour, Liberal Democrats or Independents? Perhaps the key question is what sort of Green is he – a mango or a melon? Mangos are yellow on the inside and are therefore closet Liberal Democrats. The melons are red on the inside and therefore closet Socialists. One spends money without policies whilst the other spends money with abandon.
There are enough questions here to keep a psephologist happy for days. Why did UKIP come third and did he take votes away from the Conservatives. And what was the effect of the Liberal Democrats not having a candidate?
Nationally the conservatives have managed expectations and have done better than expected – especially in East Anglia where we retained three seats in Brussels. Yesterday’s Spectator web site suggested that there is a sense that the national results have given critics in each party the opportunity to say what they’ve been planning to say all along, but possibly without the impact they’d hoped for.
Meanwhile the economy is picking up and this may be affecting the voting.
The number of young people not in education, work or training (Neets) in eastern England has fallen to a pre-recession low. In a fresh boost to the local economic outlook, there were 79,000 16 to 24-year-olds considered Neet in the first quarter of 2014, the lowest figure since 74,000 in the second quarter of 2008. At its peak, the number of young people in the region classed as Neet was 121,000 in the third quarter of 2011. Nationally, the percentage of teenagers in Neet is at its lowest since records began. The news comes after it emerged last week that total unemployment in Suffolk fell by almost a third in a year. The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits in the county reached pre-recession levels when falling to 8,592 in April, a 32.3% drop from 12,607 in April last year and the lowest since 8,486 in October 2008.
Reusing the Dog and Bone Box
I saw this in Hintlesham on Sunday. It seems a great way to reuse old telephone boxes, recycle previously enjoyed books and promote community togetherness – all at minimal cost.
Women’s Cycling Tour& Hadleigh
On Sunday May 11th, the fifth and final stage of the Women’s Cycle Tour will pass through Hadleigh en route to Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds.
There will be a programme of rolling road closures along the route as the tour passes through the District. Suffolk County Council has advised that there will be TEMPORARY NO PARKING RESTRICTION areas in Hadleigh along Benton Street, High Street, Bridge Street and Gallows Hill. Vehicles parked in these designated areas between 8.00am-2.00pm on Sunday 11th May 2014 may be towed away.
As soon as the race has passed through the town the parking restrictions will be lifted.
South Suffolk Leisure, working in partnership with Hadleigh Cycling Club will be supporting the Women’s Tour. They will be promoting family health & well-being. There will be lots of FREE healthy tasters and GOLDEN tickets for all the family. There will also be information available on how to get involved in cycling and many other physical/sporting activities as well as a CYCLE 4 Your SWIM which is a family friendly 5K cycle ride starting and finishing at Hadleigh Pool & Leisure. There will be clues to collect at each check point and successful completion of the 5K journey on Sunday 11th May will unlock a free afternoon swim for the family.
Free Compost Giveaway
National Compost Awareness Week runs from Monday 5th to Sunday 11th May.
A variety of events and activities are taking place throughout the county to celebrate the magic of composting!
To celebrate the week and to thank Suffolk residents for supporting green waste recycling services, officers will be giving out free bags of compost, whilst stocks last, to Suffolk residents visiting selected Household Waste Recycling Centres across the county.
Green fingered residents will be able to pick up a 25 litre bag of soil improver together with information on home composting and local authority green waste collection services, at six Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC). The Hadleigh HWRC will be giving away compost on Wednesday 7th May, 10am – 3pm
Composting is nature’s way of recycling organic materials to make a nutrient-rich soil improver – to help your garden bloom and your vegetables flourish. You don’t have to be green-fingered to feel the benefit – by making use of your garden and organic kitchen you’ll be doing your bit to help the environment by making peat-free composts containing recycled material. When sent to landfill, organic waste breaks down without oxygen, producing methane which contributes to global warming. An average household in Suffolk could divert 150kg of organic waste a year from landfill by home composting and significantly more if you use a composting system which deals with cooked food waste as well!
Compost Advice ‘Clinics’
There will be a number of ‘Compost Clinics’ during the week where Suffolk Master Composter volunteers will be ‘on call’ to show residents how to compost at home and to offer free trouble-shooting advice.
Further details can be found on http://www.suffolk.getcomposting.com or by calling 0844 571 4444 .
Unsafe Consumer Goods Through Felixstowe Port
Suffolk’s Trading Standards have proved their worth once again.
1256 “lethal” chainsaws,35,000 unsafe phone chargers, 400 tool sets and laser pens unfit for consumer use are amongst some of the products being destroyed following successful interventions at Felixstowe Port by Suffolk’s Trading Standards.
The products, shipped by three separate importers, were successfully intercepted as the containers were selected for examination because of their potential to cause serious injury. Following testing the goods were detained with parts earmarked for destruction and recycling. The chainsaws were found to be missing some necessary parts for safe use. Although laser pens are not illegal in the UK these are deemed too powerful for non-professional use and therefore not appropriate for their destination.
In 2012, 3.75 million consignments or 42% of UK container traffic came through Felixstowe, making it one of the largest points of entry in the UK. Most unsafe products that arrive at this port are toys, electrical appliances, smoke alarms, LED lights, chainsaws and dental equipment. Currently, of the goods being sampled, 78% are identified as unsafe.
Border controls are a far more effective way of identifying non-compliant and unsafe products than once they are available on the market. It’s good news that the National Trading Standards Board continues to fund this critical work, carried out by Trading Standards Officers working at the UK’s largest container port.”
Suffolk residents comcerned about the safety of any product should immediately stop using the product and seek advice from Citizens Advice. For further advice and information regarding possible fake or sub standard products please visit http://www.adviceguide.org.uk or call 08454 04 05 06
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