Who is this mystery Parish Councillor?...

The Chief Executive of the Suffolk Association of Local Councils, Sally Longmate, is on a mission to improve the way the organisation works, improving accountability, engagement and our relationships with other parts of the architecture of local government and the voluntary sector across the county.

As part of that, it was suggested that the Board might like to contribute a photograph and a paragraph or so about ourselves for the website, so that our membership might get to know us better. I’m keen on that as a concept, although less keen on the idea of having a photograph of me appear anywhere - I don’t tend to photograph well, especially if I know that I’m being photographed.

Luckily, the photograph is, for the time being, solved, thanks to the 2018 Harwich Shanty Festival and Ros’s Twitter feed. Yes, there is a pirate in shot, but I look relaxed and happy, and not as much like a walrus as is often the case.

As for the biography, the brief reads;

A brief paragraph about yourself, how long you have been a councillor, your position on the council, why you joined the board inc. your specific interests and maybe experience so far to help encourage others to consider this in the future.

So, here’s a perhaps not entirely serious first draft...

Mark Valladares is the current Chair of Creeting St Peter Parish Council, in Mid Suffolk South’s Gipping Valley, having been brought out of retirement by my now fellow councillors for reasons best described by the phrase “process matters”. I joined the SALC Board last year because it seemed that nobody else in Mid Suffolk South wanted to do it, possibly the story of my life in politics and local government. 

As you might guess, as my professional life revolves around stress-testing the accounts and records of small and medium sized enterprises for a major government department, my particular interests are governance and finance. As a somewhat improbable member of the BAME community, I take diversity issues seriously, based on the theory that organisations are best equipped by considering the widest range of perspectives in their decision making.

That does at least give me something to hone over the coming week...