Ganges ward councillor Derek Davis gives Babergh district report

There was a certain irony and symmetry to my first official ceremonial duty as the newly elected deputy chairman at Babergh district council backing Kathryn Grandon as chair.

After already chairing my first full council meeting, the annual one at that, I was wearing the regal chain and medal at the ceremonial de-rigging of the Ganges mast, exactly 46 years after the mast was fully manned as part of the final divisions at HMS Ganges. It was also a month short of the day I marched into the training establishment with my new class mates in 1974 to be turned from a boy to a man.

To be there last Monday was a bit special as the Ganges ward member, ex-Ganges boy and vice chair of the council that only formed in the 1970s.

Watch the video and find the full story here.

As vice-chairman part of my role is to deputise for the chair when she can't make certain events, so I have subsequently represented you as Babergh residents at the County Service at Bury St Edmunds, which doubled up as mark of respect for the Queens Platinum Jubilee, and on Saturday I was part of the civic leaders procession at the head of the loud, proud and colourful Suffolk Pride march at Ipswich's Waterfront.

Next week I will be at the Armed Forces Week in Hadleigh, a year on from being at the flag-raising ceremony at Wattisham Flying Station, which included cadets from RHS.

Armed Forces Week is a special way for us to say a personal thank you to serving armed forces personnel, the word over, and given my ex-forces status I'm always proud and delighted to be involved.

A special thank you to her majesty

A don't need to wear my bling to be proud of representing you as Ganges ward members, and that was emphasised over the Jubilee weekend when so many of you turned out for the Queens Platinum party.

The peninsula partied like no other and Shotley and Erwarton, my patch, was no exception.

I'm an unashamed royalist so thoroughly enjoyed dropping in on so many events at Shotley primary school. the village hall for afternoon tea, Kingsland's street party and although the refreshment at Erwarton's village picnic was lovely, I was ready for a beer.

So many well supported events from our villagers and a huge thanks to all the volunteers and organisers that made it happen.

And to the ultimate public servant, as Paddington Bear would say - 'we thank you Ma'am - for everything'.

Cost of living action plan

Babergh has recently adopted a five-point action plan to play our part in tackling the next six months (for a start!) of the Cost-of-Living emergency. Based on the hard-earned experience during Covid, it builds on and enhances pre-existing work. Nobody can pretend that small district councils will be able to solve these problems, but we will use our local knowledge to focus on the following points.

1) Co-ordination of Government support,

2) Exercising available discretion in support and advice.

3) Build on and from our existing partnerships and systems for a targeted family-first approach.

4) Maintain Good Health in any way we are able

5) Look at access to food and nutrition and improving it.

This work can't wait so, in conjunction with our neighbours Mid-Suffolk, we are appointing a (government funded) Cost of Living co-ordinator to pull this work together across both councils. We are amongst the first councils in the country to do this.

It is unlikely that this will all be over in six months, so the plan is going to be constantly reviewed and updated for circumstance.

Pylons

The controversy over routing of 60km of new 400kV overhead lines between Norwich and Bramford, 120km of the same from Bramford and Tilbury and a new 400 kV substation at Bramford, rumbles on.

The National Grid have been carrying out an early consultation into their proposals to improve and upgrade the electricity transmission network across East Anglia between Norwich and Tilbury. It's also intended to enable connection to offshore wind generation projects.

Babergh in common with all six Suffolk MPs, are objecting to the proposals. It's unclear why sub-sea cabling options haven't been brought forward instead for East Anglia as they are being for the north of England and Scotland.

The power and the infrastructure are certainly going to be needed in the future, but the pylons and lines are a lot bigger and uglier than existing lines in those areas. Although a section passing through Dedham Vale AONB will be underground, there must be Sealing End compounds at each end of that. They are quite obtrusive in themselves.

Our AONB landscapes are just as vulnerable and precious and many of the environmental impacts could arguably be greater.

The full consultation response, including some technical considerations, can be found on the Babergh website.