This afternoon I attended an Anzac Day service at St. Mary’s, Hadleigh to commemorate the Australians and New Zealanders “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations” and “the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.
Originally 25th April every year was to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Gallipoli Campaign also took the lives of fifteen Hadleigh soldiers which added to the poignancy of the occasion. The idea of the campaign was to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula and open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies. The Allied forces landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Army commanded by Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatürk). What had been planned as a bold strike to knock the Ottomans out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. In 1934, Kemal Atatürk delivered the following words to the first Australians, New Zealanders and British to visit the Gallipoli battlefields.
“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well”.
Local Colour
Policing in Suffolk
Tim Passmore, Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner is seeking the views of the people of Suffolk over a series of proposals that could change the face of policing in the county.
At the end of last month the Chief Constables of Suffolk and Norfolk jointly presented proposals to the two Police and Crime Commissioners on the ongoing collaboration programme to help bridge the funding gap. The proposals included a joint Contact and Control room to be located in Norfolk and a combined Shared Services Partnership which aims to bring a number of support functions together in one location in Suffolk.
The proposals were discussed at length at the Collaboration meeting (on February 27th) but Suffolk’s PCC Tim Passmore felt that more detail was needed to be certain of the robustness of the plan and has asked the Chief Constable to present more refined proposals at the next Collaboration Panel meeting on April 30.
Meanwhile he is seeking the views of the public on the principle of the proposals which are to move the Police Contact and Control room to Wymondham in Norfolk and combine services such as HR, Estates, Procurement, Finance, ICT and Transport Service in Suffolk.
Tim Passmore said, “It is really important that I, as the elected representative of the people of Suffolk, fight to protect front line policing in the county and I believe that the control room is a very integral element of front line policing.
“No decision has been made yet, but I can assure you that I will carefully consider the Chief Constable’s proposals and will make my decision based on what is best for the people of Suffolk.
“I would encourage everyone to have their say.”
Please take part in the electronic survey, go to the website http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ or write to Tim at Martlesham Police Headquarters.”
There are various public meetings. The nearest one to Hadleigh will be held at: East Bergholt High School, Heath Road, East Bergholt, CO7 6RJ on Wednesday 9 April 2014
The meeting starts at 6.30pm. No need to book, just turn up.
Rogers Farm, Newton
Next Wednesday I am a substitute on Babergh’s Planning Committee to consider an application for a change of use from agricultural land to a twenty six hectare solar farm. From the farmer’s point of view it must make sense to convert a quality field (winter wheat) into a solar farm. The field slopes away from the farm house and the visual intrusion is quite reasonable – especially when you consider the income from a field which is forecast to provide approximately 15 Megawatts peak (MWp) of electricity, sufficient to provide the power needs of 3,390 average U.K. households, which is equal to 8% of all households within Babergh. The local population are not happy. The installation will be seen from quite a wide area (as indicated from the photograph from Edwardstone Village Hall). The Box River Valley is a significant tourist area. The nearest piece of the Edwardstone Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest is only 150 metres away and a small part of the site is within the Box River Valley Special Landscape Area. North Norfolk District Council recently rejected a similar application for a wind turbine. The application went to appeal. The Planning Inspector overturned the decision and North Norfolk referred to the matter to the High Court arguing that the decision flew in the face of the will of the local community. Now a High Court Judge has ruled against the Inspector on the grounds that he did not have sufficient special regard to the desirability of preserving the setting of the listed buildings. The life of the solar farm is expected to be about twenty five years. Experts believe that they will be obsolete long before then and in the meantime it will take ten years for the new screening trees to become effective. Overall I think that this will be an interesting debate and as always my mind is open to the arguments of the developers and the residents. What was I doing on Wednesday? I was viewing the site from various angles – a character building two hours of walking about in the cold and the wellingtons.
Onward and Yeoward
Yesterday’s EADT (contained details of a letter of support from six Conservative Members of Parliament based in East Anglia promoting Tim Yeo’s cause and concluding with “We greatly value the contribution that you make as a dedicated community campaigner and experienced Parliamentarian and hope that the members of The South Suffolk Conservative Association will make the right decision”.
The article can be found on http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/ south_suffolk_yeo_gets_backing_from_the_county_s_mps_1_3167446).
The full letter is attached see: Suffolk MPs letter Dec 2013 (1)
Tim has also set up a web site (www.timyeo2015.net). Among the endorsements are one from Ian Dowling MBE, (former Association Chairman and President). Ian wrote “Tim has served his Constituents in South Suffolk with diligence and skill for 30 years. Over this time he has demonstrated considerable Political expertise and leadership, attributes which have been recognised by several Conservative Party leaders with appointments to several senior Ministerial and similar posts over those years. All this continues, and Tim’s energy to deliver not only on behalf of his Constituents but also as a senior Parliamentarian respected by his colleagues, is undiminished. I have no hesitation in supporting his application to be the candidate in South Suffolk in 2015.”
High praise indeed!
Benton Street – No More Excuses
As we finish the year, I thought I would share a success story.
The B1070, Benton Street, Hadleigh, Suffolk is infamous for its road problems. It was not designed for a lot of traffic. It is a classic horse and cart road from Manningtree to Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds. The volume of heavy traffic on the road has increased as a result of Felixstowe becoming a major port. We now have over 3,000 vehicle movements a day. Much of this is personal vehicles accessing and exiting the A12. But there is also a significant volume of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s).
For over twenty years Benton Street has enjoyed a weight restriction due to the number of old buildings – some dating from Tudor times. HGV’s are banned because they damage the old brickwork, overhanging buildings and lime washed walls.
Traffic coming from the West is properly advised that there is a weight restriction on the road into Hadleigh. No such warning was on the road from the East (Ipswich and Felixstowe) only an advice to avoid East Bergholt.
Coming off the A12 on the Eastern side there are now four signs within a hundred yards, pointing out the weight restriction and HGV traffic is now directed back onto the A12 to find a more appropriate route.
Full marks to the County’s , Skills and Environment Department.
There are now no excuses for dragging an HGV through Benton Street.
Eternal vigilance is price of liberty and I fully expect the Benton Street Squeeze supporters to continue monitoring the situation and reporting (a much reduced volume of) incidents to the County’s Trading Standards.
Cashmobs Suffolk 2
Nominations for businesses to be visited by Cashmobs has now closed.
The chosen business is The Idler which was established over 30 years ago. They sell new and secondhand books, Book Tokens, artists materials, greetings cards and Naxos CDs.
They also sell leading makes of art materials including canvases, mountboard, and a range of water colour papers and modestly priced paints and brushes for the craftworker. They operate a book search service for out of print books and can supply new books to order.
They have the best selection of greetings cards in Hadleigh. Their range of Art Angel greetings cards feature works of well-known printmakers, many of them local artists,and is perhaps the most popular selection of greetings cards they have ever stocked.
The new electronic Book Tokens are now available. These have the advantage of being obtainable in any value rather than the five pound increments of the old Voucher scheme. They are, of course, accepted in most bookshops through the UK. (The old paper vouchers are still valid)
I always find their stock most interesting. This includes:
“Suffolk Coast from the Air”. and its companion volume
“Suffolk Coast from the Air 2”,
the story of the Hadleigh Branch Line,
Suffolk Ghosts and Legends and
Ordnance Survey Maps of the local area,
George Ewart Evans’s Ask The Fellows Who Cut the Hay in an exciting new edition illustrated by David Gentleman,
David Kindred’s Hadleigh, a portrait of a Suffolk Town, which is a selection of photographs taken over the years by the late Peter Boulton .
Michael Portillo’s television series based on Bradshaw’s Railway Guide has prompted a reprint of the book first published in the 1860s. They stock this edition together with a range of other railway books both new and secondhand.
The success of the children’s book “War Horse” which is a best seller nationally has prompted Halsgrove, to publish “War Horses” which tells the true story of horses used in various conflicts around the world. It is lavishly illustrated and presented as are all the Halsgrove publications.
They also hold a large stock of publisher’s remainder books. These are books which are sold off by the publishers at roughly half-price in order to clear their warehouses.
They have a large stock of second-hand books on the Second World War and a recent purchase has widened their stock of Giles Annuals, several early volumes are now available. They have a poetry section which is very popular and as they sell Art Materials they have a great number of Art Books including art instruction books.
James Chambury was one of Hadleigh’s leading artists and a customer at The Idler. His daughters have recently edited a book containing a selection of his work, many of East Anglia and some of the work he did in The Oman.
I look forward to being in the shop on the 4th.
Cashmobs Suffolk
On Saturday, January 4th 2014 Cashmobs Suffolk – a new community initiative to stimulate our flagging High Streets – is coming to Hadleigh.
Struggling shops get our sympathy. Huge multinationals moving into our local area raises our ire and anger at the destruction of the local economy. We complain on social media and decry the decline to our friends. But what do we actually DO about it?
Cash mobs actually go beyond our online complaints. Cash mobs use actual hard cash, spent in a local shop.
So how does it work?
It is all done through the local community grouping together and using their combined networks to spread the word about the local shop that needs support. It generates real cash for bricks and mortar businesses in the local community. The community gets together and decides to spend £10 or thereabouts in a local shop on a designated day. The local shop gets business that would have otherwise gone to a multinational chain of shops and the local community is energised.
It is a simple concept. Shop locally. Buy from local shops to keep the local economy alive. Cashmobs aim is not just about bringing the community together but also about supporting Suffolk¹s independent shops and boosting the local economy.
It’s a concept that has been highly successful in America and has been set up in Suffolk by two local business women, Sue Hall and Eileen Brown, and they are running it on an entirely voluntary basis.
Their message, to spend at the nominated shop in Hadleigh, is being spread through social media particularly through the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/CashMobSuffolk
Other UK towns ¬ including Hadleigh have had Cash Mob events in the past, but Sue and Eileen are planning to take this right across Suffolk visiting different towns across the country on a monthly basis.
Hadleigh and Felixstowe have been selected for January 4th and February 1st respectively but there are plans to go to Lowestoft and west Suffolk later in the year. In time we would like to introduce this initiative across Norfolk and Essex too as well.
Retailers selected for the Cashmob, obviously get a one-off boost but in the US it’s been found to have a positive long term spin-off for other local businesses too as consumers visit other local shops in the town.
So nominate a local Hadleigh business on the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/CashMobSuffolk, look out for the nominated business and spend that tenner in the shop on Saturday January 4th 2014.
Happy Cash mobbing!
Blog courtesy of the Hadleigh Chamber of Commerce
Chihuahua of Doom
On Thursday I attended a full Council meeting at Endeavour House, Ipswich. The day started at 10 a.m. when the political group meets and chews over the bones in the documentation and discusses best ways of answering the questions and motions put and proposed by the other parties. We look not only at the questions and the motions but also at the minefields which might come from the follow up discussions.
So it was seemingly innocuous in the afternoon to hear Motion No. 1 – proposed by Councillor Julian Flood and seconded by Councillor Tony Brown “That Suffolk County Council supports the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition in his aim of freezing energy prices, and will work towards the same goal.”
Julian turned his opportunity to speak into an attack against green taxes. Claiming that they did little to counter adverse climate change but instead penalised the consumer and those businesses who had to compete in a world where effective green policies were not always in evidence. And then it went pear shaped. Julian was trying to highlight the effect of carbon in the U.K. It was the equivalent of six thousandths of a degree of temperature change. As you usually have to ascend or descend a thousand feet to see a change of one degree – this was the equivalent of six feet of vertical movement. Suffolk’s carbon emissions were the equivalent of less than one part per thousandth of a degree or about ten inches of vertical movement – the height of a Chihuahua.
And then it went surreal as we were cautioned against the Chihuahua of Doom which was threatening our economic survival and the richness of our countryside through unnecessary wind and solar panel farms.
There were enough votes in the Conservative Group and their friends to defeat the motion.
Best entertainment of the day was the way in which the Leader of the Labour Group tried to endorse the motion but distance himself from the idea that green policies were overdone.
More details can be viewed on http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/suffolk_chihuahua_of_doom_stalks_the_council_chamber_1_3132304
Non-Salary Expenses
The readers of this blog will recall that since July I have been endeavouring to ascertain the level of the non salary expenses of Babergh’s & Mid Suffolk’s senior managers.
The details are published on Babergh’s report No. JAC15 to the Joint Audit
& Standards Committee. See: http://bdcdocuments.onesuffolk.net/assets/Uploads/Committees/Committee-Reports/Reports-2013-14/JAC15.pdf
The details are quite interesting. There is a one off charge of £10,467 for
relocation and removal expenses. Details of the expense are to be provided
later.
Apart from this figure the expenses are £22,073 spread across 13 posts. The
chunkiest category was £3,573 for attending conferences. Conferences are
attended to keep up to date with what is happening in the public sector as a
whole and also in specialist areas and hopefully ensure that the councils are reflecting current and best practice. Training and course fees came in at £400.
Overall I am quite happy with the outcome of my enquiries. My colleagues
enjoyed themselves pursuing detail which had hitherto remained unreported. More details will come out in future reports and each officer now knows that their actions are subject to more detailed scrutiny than hitherto.
Tesco – The Fall Out
The following appears in the November edition of the Hadleigh Community News under the heading “Towards the Deep End”.
“Damian Thompson in The Daily Telegraph on October 9th commented that being bonkers is no longer a bar to political advancement.
Well anyone who watched Councillors support the proposition in September that the Brett Works site should be developed by Tesco would not be strangers to this idea.
Reasons advanced in favour of the development included:
The development of the site as a supermarket would be a long term benefit for our town.
There are no shops in Polstead.
It will raise the profile of Hadleigh.
The introduction of Tesco into the town will benefit out of town residents (especially those from Polstead).
The development will bring people into the town.
There are no good reasons for rejection.
Some councillors once again demonstrated that every time they speak they put the cause of local democracy back by at least five years. It became embarrassing to hear some of the speeches of support for the proposed Brett Works site development.
That being said, the Planning Committee meeting was a very interesting day and brought about a satisfactory outcome. I was glad that I was able to cancel and re-jig my holiday arrangements joining my wife and her cousins a few days late in Croatia.”
The Brett Works Site/Tesco discussion continues with people in Hadleigh grateful for their escape from Tesco but bemused that the margin for victory was so slender.
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