Box Vale Ward Report from Cllr Bryn Hurren August 25.
It seems unbelievable that I am now writing my piece for August, it seems as I get older the world spins faster, it is not really that I hope, I feel that as I am the sort of individual who is a hard taskmaster upon myself and likes to do everything I promise and try to get others to do the same, I just cram a lot into everyday.
So as the nights are pulling in a little and we are now nearer next Christmas than the last, I had better get cracking with all I have to do. Twelve weeks into living with my new replacement knee, I am almost pain free now and able to sleep at night which is a great relief and a real joy after so much angst for the past six years.
I love August because as well as being my birth month, it is also the time I try to take my annual day off work and travel down to the fantastic Cropredy Music Festival in the valleys and beside the canals of Oxfordshire. All sold out again but got my ticket early. So important to have a small break from the long weeks of work and all the council duties that come with the role of being an elected District Councillor for six villages.
I will in fact be the very last person to have this role, as we are now consulting on our own demise and what will follow in its place. The proposed mayor across both Norfolk and Suffolk as one region, could be a complete dogs dinner or breakfast maybe, better to have these counties competing against each other rather than throwing them together in an effort to make bigger regions to save national government time.
Putting County and District functions together should be a good thing and if done in the correct way could give the electorate good service and contact with staff and the local councillor, as Babergh has always endeavoured to do. The county stance is that they want one council for the whole of Suffolk’s one and a half million people and carry on regardless running it which must not be allowed to happen. Suffolk deserves Better. All the districts across Suffolk and Norfolk want 3 unitary councils across each county to feed into the new region to give accountability, value for money, good services to constituents and contact with their local elected representative.
The government of the day also has to realise and acknowledge that local government needs proper funding from a central pot, not shifting the financial burden on to the local population through local taxes that go up by 5% every year. Many people are really hurting now, we are not all well off living in the countryside, villages, hamlets and small towns that make up the Babergh region, we need to be respected and valued more economically. We all have a role to play and not just as fodder for raising taxes.
We must learn to accept and raise taxes in other ways, polluters should pay for the environmental damage that they cause, and that’s not just those who drive private cars and those that work in the transport and distribution industries, they are caned enough. We have to move taxes onto those that make untold billions from fossil fuels and jollying around in the sky, one overseas holiday per year is acceptable maybe but any more is criminal and should now be taxed very heavily. Cycling and walking holidays are great fun in the British regions and good for fitness as well.
Talking of which it has just been announced that the Tour of Britain men’s cycle race will be coming to our part of Suffolk again this year and in fact the first stage on Tuesday 2nd September will be held between Southwold and Woodbridge and the next day starting and finishing in Stowmarket, taking in many villages across our region along the way, great to watch if you can find a good vantage point. The full route will be announced and promoted very soon, by the time you will be reading this column in fact.
Great news that the Post Office are now consulting and seeking our views on their own future and it would be good if as many people as possible could respond in a positive way and continue to use these much needed facilities, we still have working Post Offices in Boxford, Monks Eleigh Stoke by Nayland and Polstead, all attached to Village Shops which also provide a valuable service and manned by dedicated staff. They are not just there for us to send our mistaken purchases back to where they came from, they provide banking services and a range of methods of paying bills and obtaining other financial services that are invaluable to private individuals and businesses. We have a chance now to big and build them up more and secure their future for our villages.
Another long standing local institution is the horticultural show held in Assington, where I live, the schedule of classes can be found on the village website and we welcome entries from a 15 mile radius as well as from the village itself. Exhibits on show from 2.00.pm. Come for tea, coffee and a look around. It has been a struggle this year to raise good crops for show with such a hot summer so far and a terrible lack of rainfall.
The word around is that by the end of this month, July that is, we will be facing a hosepipe ban here in South Suffolk and possible rationing as well if it does not rain soon, we will have to now love every drop, although Anglian Water who coined that phase, do not always do that themselves. Another stark reminder of the way that our climate is now changing ever faster and we are getting deeper into something that will change all our lives drastically, without doing much about it, the next generation will inherit a world and planet that we have not looked after as we should have done.
Keep well and cool if you can, contact me if you have a problem or need council help. Bryn.hurren@babergh.gov.uk tel 01787 210854 mob 07771 508348