As those of you who are, or have been, councillors will know, a council has to meet within fourteen days of an election. I'm assured that there is a good reason for this, laid down by statute I presume. In Creeting St Peter, we don't let the grass grow under our feet, and so we met this evening to meet the requirement.
Unfortunately, our outgoing Chairman was unable to attend, and so my colleague Sue opened the meeting by calling for nominations for the Chair. Steve wanted to continue, so we nominated him in his absence, leaving us short of a Chair for the meeting. Sue wasn't keen, so I got the job. My first task... welcoming our newly re-elected District Councillor and inviting her to give her report. I am, after all, a gentleman...
We then moved on to the election of a Vice Chairman and, given that nobody else wanted the job, I graciously accepted the nomination. I'll be honest, and admit that I'm really honoured by the opportunity. It may not seem like much, but I feel that I've been accepted in a small way, and that's kind of important to me. Small villages aren't always so welcoming to an outsider, I'm told.
I'm also the village's representative on the Stowmarket Area Road Safety Committee and to the Suffolk Association of Local Councils, so my evenings are being slowly filled. It's all go here in the English countryside, you know...
So, I'm acting Chair until our next meeting, when I can hand over to Steve. Don't worry, I'm not planning to annex Stonham Aspal in the meantime...
Congratulations:-) Parish Councils are seen as the "bottom of the pile" but often deal with the truly important issues. Some of them are dreadful and dysfunctional or an excuse to advance self-interest (often around land) so great to see people going into it for the right reasons!
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