East Bergholt Parish Council, Chairman’s report, 2019/20

A large number of long serving parish councillors retired from the Parish Council by May 2019. The
village owes a debt of gratitude for all the work which they have done over the years to provide the
village with all the amenities that it has. I would particularly like to single out for thanks the past
Chairman, Paul Ireland and the Vice Chairman. Rodney Moss.

Paul led the Parish Council through a time of significant change and activity, personally leading the
work to create a Neighbourhood Plan that represents the views of the vast majority of the village
and which envisages a future of suitable growth with a concentration of new housing for the older
people and young families and young people of the village. He kept the Parish Council together
through the trials of pursuing judicial reviews of the decisions made at Babergh to approve large
scale developments. The first of these we won and the second is still going through the courts.
During his time as Chair, Paul also made sure that all parish councillors were able to take forward
their ideas and play a full part in the working of the parish council.

Rodney was not just Vice-Chairman, he was also the chairman of the Burial Grounds Committee and
it is largely due to his leadership over the years that we have a beautiful and peaceful space in the
cemetery that has been much admired. Alongside this magnificent achievement Rodney has also
been instrumental in helping Paul to lead the Parish Council and in taking direct management of the
Judicial Review cases. With all his years of experience of the parish council and of living in the village
all his life he has also been a wise mentor to new parish councillors and helped them to find their
feet and make their voices heard effectively. At the same time he has also helped to keep us on the
straight and narrow both in terms of the right procedures and sound financial planning.

The new Parish Council started in May 2019 with over half its members new to the parish council.
We held some induction sessions and identified some priorities for the new Parish Council and we
made some good progress over the beginning of the year up until January 2020.
• We appointed an excellent new Clerk, Graham White, and opened up a new Parish Office in the
Gattinetts to make it easier for people to contact the Parish Council in person
• We established a project with the help of our county councillor, Gordon Jones, to look at ways in
which we can improve traffic safety. So far we have reached the stage of identifying some
options. The next step is to consult the village on those options which we will do once we are
able to hold public events again.
• We have supported organisations in the village which help to provide local amenities which
residents have identified in the neighbourhood plan as important. In this respect we have
provided grants to the Community Land Trust, Sports Council and organisations, the Constable
Hall, and Heart Watch and a number of other organisations.

Since February all of our focus has been on coronavirus and working out ways we can support the
village in meeting this crisis. In line with the Government’s new arrangements we have held virtual
parish council meetings using zoom, inviting members of the public to participate as they would in
normal parish council meetings. We have supported, both financially and in person, the volunteers
who have offered to help people in need in the village, and we have made the necessary
contingency arrangements to ensure that the Parish Council services continue. We have also been a
conduit of the mass of official information and directives coming from government, the local health
services, the county council, and the district council. They have all been very busy on all our behalf
and I thank them for the speed with which they have stepped up their emergency planning services
to help protect us.

We are living in unusual times and it will not be possible to hold our Annual Parish Meeting this year
but we will arrange to post questions and answers on line. If you have any questions you would like
to raise, please write, email or telephone the Clerk, whose details are on the website.

I very much look forward to seeing you all again when conditions allow.

Joan Miller
Chairman of East Bergholt Parish Council
May 2020