Report for Box Vale District Ward July 2025
A good time now to thank all those who have worked hard for the many past years at or behind the scenes for Boxford surgery, especially the Drs, medical staff, receptionists and all of those who have kept it running so well for so long. I have not met anyone yet who thinks its closure is a good idea and certainly not the current staff who are clear to point out this has not been done in their name. Sincere thanks to them for doing the final shift.
We now have a big problem in this rural area to get the more senior and infirm members of our community, safely transported to an already quite crowded facility in a nearby market town with limited nearby safe parking within walking distance and back again. While this closure has been dressed up as an improvement to the health service in our rural area, for many on the receiving end this will be anything but this and an inconvenience, strain and disruption for many, old and young alike. The facility is completely safe for what it was designed for and much more besides if it had been maintained and developed sufficiently for more modern times, just been neglected and thinned down for the kill, which was quite ruthless when the axe fell. Could still have been well used as a vital facility to serve the local community and to take the weight of the larger facility in Hadleigh for vaccinations and general local treatments of patients as it always has been, if maintained and kept safe. Always better to take Mohamed to the mountain than to take the whole mountain to Mohamed, just because he or she prefers to stay and work elsewhere. Where is the green initiative here.
Better news is that the District Councils of BaberghMidSuffolk, once again intend to run our tree for life scheme once again this calendar year of 2025. This means that any child born between Jan 1st until dec 31st will be entitled to a free tree to be planted at their home or in a suitable public place which will be awarded the following spring just in time for planting season, this is in the hope that the child and it’s family will grow to value that tree and it’s existence as they grow up and old together. Also the aim is to increase the tree cover over our part of Suffolk and into our future in unison.
Continuing along the green path, big efforts are being put in by myself and others to achieve the incorporation of the Goodlands meadow into the Primrose Wood complex, this is ongoing now with just the solicitors on both sides to do the final part, hopefully then the access path can be created, gated and mowed to lead us all down into what is one of the best little sanctuaries in the whole of Suffolk, a brilliant antidote to the stress that the first paragraph will bring. Hopefully by the time you are reading this article, the path mowing will have happened. If not the mowing fairies will have to be brought into play to do the job, as so often before. Along with this, real momentum is being achieved to get the permissive path alongside Stone St, cleared, repaired and fit to walk along again, for the safety and convenience and connection of the two parts of Boxford village to gain safer access into and out to the wider parts of our and other villages. My grateful thanks to the two landowners who will give up their perspective land and time to allow this to happen. The initial clearance will start on 29th June and a couple of volunteers would be very welcome to help with initial clearance, reinstating fencing and looking after and watching over this vital link into the future.
Across our districts work and planning is carrying on to change our own future in the way we are run and governed, the District Council attitude is, if it’s going to happen then let’s make it as good as it can be for the sake of all, we are not power crazy, let’s just leave as good a legacy as we possibly can for the benefit of all. We have already unanimously decided that Suffolk would be best served by three unitary councils of just over a quarter of a million people each to promote our residents into a manageable form of local government for the future of our County. As in health services, big is certainly not always best and we need to make sure that every constituent feels valued and well represented into our and their future.
If you need your District Councillor then please contact me on bryn.hurren@babergh.gov.uk 07771 508348 01787 210854.