At a full Council meeting, held on April 20, Councillors voted for the following as Chairmen of their respective Committees:

Cllr David Wood, Chairman of the Council
Cllr Gerald White, Vice-Chairman of the Council
Cllr Nick Ridley, Chairman of the Strategy Committee
Cllr David Busby, Chairman of Overview & Scrutiny (Stewardship)
Cllr James Long, Chairman of Overview & Scrutiny (Community Services)
Cllr Rex Thake, Chairman of Development
Cllr Brian Lazenby, Chairman of Licensing and Appeals
Cllr Desmond Keane, Chairman of Hadleigh & District Swimming Pool Trust Committee

The Members of the Standards Committee elected independent member, Mr JD Watson, as their new Chairman in March.

Work began this week on removing the old wooden climbing frame – and other equipment in the bark chipped area – in the park between Meadows Way and Pykenham Way.

The new equipment will include climbing/ slide equipment specifically for under 5s and a more advanced climber and swing for older children.

Existing swings, seesaws and spinners will stay in the park.

Jo Seymour, Babergh’s Horticultural Officer, said: “Babergh is delighted to have been able to fund this new play park which we hope will bring hours of fun to children using it.

“The previous equipment is nearly 30 years old and is only still able to be used because of careful maintenance over the years. Now, however, the wooden frame is rotten below ground level and needs to be replaced. At the same time we are replacing a slide, climbing hoops and an outdated climbing frame for younger children.

“We hope to provide some really exciting new equipment which will be challenging and adventurous, as well as just plain, old fun!”

The work will take place in two phases – this week will see the removal of old equipment and the installation of one of the new pieces. Just after the Easter break, the further two pieces of equipment will be installed with the park remaining open in the meantime.

Funding for the park has come from Babergh’s capital budget, which can only be spent on long-term projects like facilities and equipment.

For further information on the High Court order see the following web page

Background – October 2008

Planning Officers from Mid Suffolk District Council are concerned about a company that is offering land for sale as a development opportunity without planning consent.

A land sale scheme has been identified operating in the Thorndon area south of the town of Eye in Suffolk.  Companies operating these schemes seek investors to buy plots of land, often Greenfield, in areas that have not been granted planning permission and which have a strictly limited potential to ever be developed.  The operators of these schemes promote the plots as part of future housing development.  This scheme at Thorndon requests an initial £500 deposit per plot.

The council is aware that land sale firms offer huge gains to entice investors, on the premise that the plots of agricultural land they sell will gain planning permission for housing development at some time in the future, causing the agricultural land to soar in value.  Despite small print clauses pointing out that these profits are not guaranteed there is a positive outcome anticipated by the documents and the promotional material is apparently supported by material from the BBC and Channel 4.

In the site at Thorndon, Planning Officers at Mid Suffolk are concerned that people are being drawn into a deal that has little or no chance of planning permission being obtained.  The scheme advertises a site plan (for illustration purposes) which implies that the 11 hectare site will deliver 300 houses.  The site is in a countryside location, 0.5 km from Thorndon which is classified as a secondary village in Mid Suffolk’s Core Strategy.  This reflects the limited services and facilities on offer.  Future housing allocations will not be sought in this area.

The council is taking action to inform the local press and interested agencies about this scheme in an effort to explain the circumstances further.  Mid Suffolk Officers will be contacting local television and radio who have covered similar sales schemes in recent times.

If you have concerns over this and have already purchased some land, please contact the Planning Policy section at Mid Suffolk District Council via email: planningpolicy@midsuffolk.gov.uk

Although the weather is warm and sunny now, it’s only a few months since the severe snow caused major problems for people. It’s hoped that the new campaign will get people thinking about what they need to do to deal with emergencies like bad weather in their area.

The campaign, which was jointly designed with residents from Suffolk communities, will be visible across the county over the next few months as posters, leaflets and as a web site. On the web site, community organisations can get advice and tools such as guides and plan templates, view the latest news or can connect with other communities around Suffolk to share ideas and experiences.

Andy Osman, Head of Emergency Planning for the Suffolk Joint Emergency Planning Unit, said: “The campaign is designed to get people thinking about where they live and how prepared they would be if there was an emergency. It features images of real emergency situations that have happened in Suffolk and gives details of where people can go for further support and advice.”

Communities can be involved as little or as much as they want in the new campaign – from providing information about vulnerable residents or the location of resources and equipment, to forming a team of volunteers and developing a full emergency plan.

This winter was a stark reminder of how unprecedented weather conditions can trigger emergency situations, which can lead to difficult situations, for many communities.

Andy Osman said: “Severe weather, and not just in winter, is something that can effect any community and can be very distressing when it leads to community isolation, but other unforeseen factors such as outbreaks of animal diseases or industrial accidents can be the cause of serious situations as well.”

He added: “The Suffolk Joint Emergency Planning Unit has a lot of expertise which we can use to help people get better prepared – that way we can all benefit if there’s an emergency that we need to deal with. Some places will have community emergency arrangements already in place – by using the new web site, they can tell us what they’re already doing, and get advice on what else they could do. As they say – it is better to be over prepared then under.”

There are plenty of events happening and Days Out in Suffolk to keep the children entertained over Half Term.

Spring Half Term 2010

SCORE at Ipswich Town Community Trust
Open Throughout Half-Term Week

Show boredom the red card this February Half-Term with Ipswich Town Community Trust’s SCORE, the new name for ITFC’s Holiday Soccer Camps.

Experience a BRAND NEW coaching and games programme overseen by our friendly, experienced and FA qualified coaching team. With sessions running throughout Suffolk including Bury St Edmunds, Framlingham, Ipswich, Thetford, Elmswell, Felixstowe, Saxmundham and Woodbridge, you won’t have to travel far to reach a venue close to home.

SCORE is open to both boys and girls aged 4 – 12 years of age and with our amazing, better than ever, new prices, you cannot afford to miss out on booking your child’s place! 1 day camps can now be booked at the new low price of £10 and our 2 day course are fantastic value at just £20! Please click on the link above for contact details.

Weekend wildlife walk at RSPB Minsmere, Saxmundham
February: Sat 13
Start at 9.30 am (2.5 – 3 hours)
Join us for a seasonal weekend walk to look for autumn wading birds and migrants, wintering ducks and geese and a host of other wildlife highlights that may be present at the time.

Bird box building and Family Morning in association with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust
13 Sat 10.30am – 12.30pm
Make your own wooden nest box and lard cake to take home and go on a bird walk. £5 per box. All children must be supervised.

See Suffolk Tourist Guide for more great ideas or our what’s on guide

Colin Bull, 89, was asleep upstairs at the back of his house in High Street, Hadleigh when a red Ford Escort came off the road and smashed into his hall at 11.55pm on Friday.

Mr Bull’s daughter, Dianne Gibson, 64, was woken by the crash and rushed to tell her father the news.

He said: “My daughter heard a huge crash, it scared her half to death.

“We went downstairs and there was a car half way into the hall surrounded by bricks and rubble.”

Police and fire fighters were called to the scene of the smash at the junction with Angel Street just before midnight.

Transco engineers were also called after a smell of gas was reported after the incident but found no leak.

Miraculously, the car’s passengers were unharmed and managed to escape from the wreckage of their vehicle.

But the front of Mr Bull’s Grade II listed house was completely destroyed and structural engineers had to brace the building with acro props to stop it falling down.

“They were very fortunate not to be injured because the car was a wreck,” Mr Bull said. “The front of the house would have collapsed if they hadn’t shored it up.”

The cost of the damage to the house, which dates back to the 15th century, is as yet unknown.

But Mr Bull, who has lived in the building for more than 40 years, is thankful no-one was killed.

“You just don’t expect something like this to happen,” he said. “We do get traffic along the road but nothing like this has happened before.”

The car was removed around 3am and Mr Bull’s house was boarded up until further repairs can take place to restore the building to its original state.

Suffolk Spring Clean will run for two weeks, from the 30th March to the 12th April, throughout the county. All the borough and district councils will again be loaning out free equipment including bags and litter picks.

Councillor Jeremy Pembroke, Leader of the Suffolk County Council said, “This is a wonderful initiative and one that makes a real difference to Suffolk. I hope that everyone will take part and work together to help Suffolk become the greenest county!”

Fed up with all the rubbish on the side of the roads and in many of our natural beauty spots, Mark Murphy, BBC Radio Suffolk’s Breakfast Show Presenter launched the ‘Don’t be a Tosser campaign’ last year. It was such a success it is being relaunched to coincide with Suffolk Spring Clean week. Mark said: “When you drive around Suffolk now you can really notice a difference.  The A14 in particular was disgusting and it seems people were just tossing their bottles and bags out of their car or lorry window. Since we launched the campaign councils, businesses, groups and individuals have all rallied around to help tidy the place up. It’s been a great success”

If you wish to take part in a litter pick or even organise one yourself, please contact your local borough and districts. Contact details are available on the www.greensuffolk.org website and the BBC Radio Suffolk website, www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk.

Hadleigh High School has become increasingly concerned about the amount of litter in and around the school site and – backed by the Environmental Protection team at Babergh District Council – decided to do something about it.

Lead by the School’s Eco team – formed in January this year to make Hadleigh High a more sustainable school – the whole school community will be taking part in a spring clean on the morning of Friday April 3 from 8.35-9.05am.

Science teacher, Emma Bell, who also runs Eco team says “we believe that keeping the site clean and safe is the responsibility of every member of our school community so every pupil from year 7 to year 11, and every member of staff will roll up their sleeves and pick up litter to help improve our school environment and the local footpaths”.

“Pupils will compete between forms for the most efficient litter pickers and prizes for the best form in each year group will be awarded in the afternoon assembly. The prizes have kindly been donated by the East of England Co-operative for which we are very grateful. We are also very grateful for the support of Babergh District council in helping us set up and run the spring clean”.

Babergh is supplying the litter pickers that will be used by the pupils and will be collecting and suitably disposing of all the waste that will be collected.

Jo Hart, Babergh’s Environmental Protection Officer added “Babergh totally supports this kind of good neighbour activity aimed at helping Babergh to blitz this cumulative problem. We would be pleased to help the School in any future similar activities and indeed any other groups that want to help keep our environment as clean as possible”.

For the last few months, Babergh officers have been working hard to pull together a bid for £185,000 from Sport England – the government agency responsible for developing a world-class community sport system. Babergh’s bid, which included a pledge by the Council to contribute an additional £88,600 if it was successful, clearly impressed the agency as it has been allocated the full amount that it was after.

The Hadleigh Pool bid was one of only two in the whole of Suffolk to be approved by Sport England.

According to Cllr. Nick Ridley, Babergh’s Strategy Committee Chairman, “this is really great news for Hadleigh, for users of the Pool and the staff who work there. Babergh is committed to maintaining the existing facility for as long as possible and so in recent years has upped the amount of money available for this purpose”.

“But this extra money will allow us to make a major and obvious difference to the whole user experience at the Pool – and so should help further increase its popularity among local people”.