My First Meeting

I attended my first District Council meeting yesterday evening. It was mainly procedural in appointing people to official roles, approving policies and receiving reports. It was held in a new meeting room in the new offices at the Broadlands Business Park. It was the first meeting in the room.

We all realise that this is a new District Council world in which there is only a small majority for the Conservative party. It is a world in which there will be a need for greater consultation, cooperation and collaboration.

Positions on committees were allocated under strict rules, whereby membership reflects the proportion of seats won by each party. It was very constructive and cooperative meeting.

I have currently been allocated to the Finance, Regulatory, Audit and Governance (FRAG) Committee. Also the Development Management Committee, Safer and Cleaner Environment Committee, and the Scrutiny Committee. There are outside bodies on which Councillors represent South Norfolk Council, I have been nominated for Norwich Area Museums Committee. These allocations are not yet set in stone, but provides a way to move forwards.

As a Chartered Accountant who spent most of my working life in internal and external audit, then membership of FRAG seems an obvious one, and which unsurprisingly excites me. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but remember I am a Chartered Accountant.

The Scrutiny Committee excites me as it has the remit the review the work and decisions of the Cabinet. It seems similar to an independent 'audit' review. This one is Chaired by a representative of the Liberal Democrat party with a Vice Chair from the Labour party. This is very much a cross party committee.

I am very pleased to be involved with museums, being on the committee of our local museum and heavily involved with previous historical trails around Harleston and St Mary's Church, and the Mayflower 400 commemoration plans in both Harleston and London.

Development Management is key to all communities as they look to have greater say on the developments in their towns and villages. Harleston have recently created our own Neighbourhood Plan and it is important that this and all other Plans and the views of local people are taken into consideration.

The cleaner and safer environment is super important to everyone and is probably the biggest challenge.

My aims remain to protect and promote the interests of our community and in particular progress things I promoted during my campaign: nature recovery across a wider area; economic growth through greater tourism; and improvements to our infrastructure.

Jeremy Savage gave an emotional speech on receiving a well deserved appreciation at the Annual Town Meeting on Tuesday, where he said that he had represented everyone, irrespective of their political alignments. I intend to follow the wonderful example set and delivered by Jeremy. I will be open and approachable, and intend to set up open surgeries where you can come and talk with me directly.

I am new to this role, and have a lot to learn. But I will do my best for the entire ward: Harleston, Needham, Redenhall and Wortwell.