Thredling - a warning of things to come?

The late breaking decision to reinstate the County Council elections in May means that the new boundaries for Suffolk County Council kick in. And yes, the elections should be taking place but, for Creeting St Peter, it comes with a bit of a sense of loss.

I don't tend to be too kindly towards non-Liberal Democrat councillors - for obvious reasons - but the new boundaries mean that our current County Councillor will be fighting a division that doesn't include us, and it must be said that he has, from our perspective, done a very good job, attending as many Parish Council meetings as he can - indeed, he's missed precious few - and playing a full part in our meetings. You might almost say that he's been our "sixth councillor".

At our meeting last week, my colleagues and I passed a motion thanking him for his service to our community, which is not a common event in our recent history. And yes, Keith Welham is a Green, but credit where credit is due. In fairness, he's probably fit in nicely with the Liberal Democrats, but the Greens asked him first, apparently, so their gain is our loss, I suppose.

Instead, we leave Stowmarket North and Stowupland and have been assigned to Thredling division. Don't look for Thredling on a map of Mid Suffolk - you won't find it - as, in the traditional Suffolk fashion for never discarding anything, the division is named after a Saxon hundred (see also Bosmere, Thedwastre, Thingoe...).

Thredling is a diverse County division, consisting of twenty-five parishes across a swathe of Mid Suffolk with little in common. The current incumbent is Matthew Hicks, the Conservative Leader of the County Council, who has usually won with plenty to spare. He might not have it so easy this time.

The Greens will no doubt give him a stiffer challenge, given that they did well in a lot of the constituent District wards in 2023, and he can expect to haemorrhage votes to Reform to the right but, regardless of who wins, I don't expect to see much of them - trying to find time to visit twenty-five parishes and attend all of those County meetings would be a stretch for anyone.

And, perhaps more critically, we've done very well out of the locality funds for our County and District Councillors in recent years, and whoever wins in Thredling will have many more calls on those funds than Keith ever had. Luckily, we probably don't need very much just now, but you never know.

I will make a point of inviting all of the candidates to attend our Annual Parish Meeting on 18 May - if you don't ask, you certainly won't get - but I won't be delaying the start of the meeting in the hope that they're simply running late...