Monday, January 22, 2024

À la recherche d'un village perdu

As some of you will know, I am now the remote Chair of Creeting St Peter Parish Council, in that I don't live there any more. And you aren't alone in wondering whether or not this is a good idea. There is, I suspect, every possibility that you come across as the Parish Council equivalent of a colonial administrator, without any real skin in the game.

I've been conscious of that all along, and am entirely up front about being willing to go should Council conclude that the arrangement doesn't work for them or for the residents of Creeting St Peter. But, for the time being at least, everyone appears to be content and are happy for me to continue.

And so, this evening, I made my way back to Creeting St Peter on a cold, damp evening for our first meeting of 2024.

Luckily, we'd made most of the difficult decisions in our November meeting, including settling on our 2024/25 budget, so the meeting was mostly about reports and "box-ticking", in the company of our Liberal Democrat District Councillor, Terry Lawrence. And that meant that I was able to steer us through the business in about fifty minutes, allowing me to catch an earlier train back to Ipswich.

One of the things about having an efficient Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer is that everyone can read the papers in advance, minimising unnecessary debate and make quick decisions, even allowing opportunities for councillors to raise any point they feel they need to. And that means that business is brisk but open - I'm even relaxed about bringing in members of the public to speak should they wish to.

And I'm fortunate in that my fellow councillors, Ayse, Dan, Davin and Lynne, are committed to their responsibilities, are active in village life, and pay attention to what's going on around them. Not every Chair of a Parish Council is as lucky.

So my reign of terror leadership continues, at least until May, and the Annual Parish Council Meeting. May everything continue to run as smoothly as it has so far...


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