Village Recorder S Annual Report for 2015

Village Recorder’s Annual Report for 2015

2015 was as usual an eventful year in the village. The stand out moment was sadly the most tragic and it happened on a warm evening at the end of June when a young man from Ipswich died in the reservoir after jumping off Lemon’s Hill Bridge. An account of this will follow later in the report.

On a happier note the year saw all the usual events in the village take place – the Paper Boat Race on New Year’s Day, the Alton Water Fun Run in May and the Village Fete in September amongst other things; plus another villager reached the grand age of 100.

One major step forward into the 21st century was the introduction of fibre broadband to the village after many years of anticipation. As part of the Better Broadband for Suffolk initiative fibre finally arrived in September leading to improved broadband speeds for much of the village but unfortunately not for The White Horse area.

With new ownership there are changesafoot at The White Horse and the owners of The Wheatsheaf entered their second year with a variety of events taking place throughout the year and a loyal clientele. One much loved business, The Rookery Farm Shop, closed.

Arable farming plays a huge part in the tapestry of the village and yet in the 21st century few of us know that much about what is going on so close by, generally knowing more about I-pads and smartphones. The Abbott family have farmed in Tattingstone for about 100 years and later in this report under Businesses there is an insight into 2015 from the farmer who is the third generation of the family to farm here.

As always, whenever I met people who had newly moved into the village, their story was always the same – what a friendly village it is! And everywhere in the village looked especially resplendent in the spring when the hundreds and hundreds of daffodil bulbs that had been planted the previous autumn flowered. By autumn another 1000 bulbs had been planted around the village bought with proceeds from the produce stall at the Fete.

People

Joan Kersey - Village Centenarian - February

Following close in the footsteps of the two ladies who celebrated their 100th birthdays in 2014, Joan Kersey reached 100 on 28 February and a photo of her with her birthday card from the Queen can be seen on the May issue of the Tattingstone News.

Ken Clarke - Village Postman – March

After looking after us so well for 21 years and 5 months, Ken, our much loved postman retired at the end of March. He had been with Royal Mail for 6 days short of 37 years. A presentation took place on 14 May. Commenting on how the village had changed he said that when he started in the village there were three pubs, one shop, a post office, a derelict hospital, one garage and an engineering works

David Wood – May

Thanks were expressed to David for his 18 years as District Councillor for Tattingstone, Stutton and Brantham. An account of his achievements can be found in the June edition of the Tattingstone News.

Matthew Dunnett – June

A full report of this tragedy appears in the August issue of the Tattingstone News and in newspaper articles held by the village recorder but in brief, on the evening of Tuesday 30 June after emergency services had spent more than an hour searching the water the body of Matthew Dunnett age 22 of Ipswich was recovered. Attending the incident on Lemon’s Hill Bridge were fire fighters and water rescue teams from Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, Suffolk Police, paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service, the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service air ambulance and the RAF Air Sea Rescue helicopter. The scene on the bridge was like something out of a disaster movie, especially as it got dark.

Villagers were doubly saddened because as well as the loss of a life needlessly, many had been campaigning for years to Anglia Water and the local police for action to be taken to prevent such an accident like this occurring because every summer on a hot day young people would gather on the bridge and jump into the water.

In the aftermath Anglian Water held an onsite meeting with local MP James Cartildge. Further items relating to this incident can be found later in the report under Anglia Water and also on the village website and Anglian Water’s media release is attached to this report.

John Higginson - Obituary – August

John was a longstandingTattingstone resident who emigrated to New Zealand with his wife in 2010. He had been an active member of the community and former Chairman of the Parish Council. Amongst the many other things he will be remembered for he started the annual theatre trip to London, campaigned to save the White Horse from closure and initiatedOpen the Box to raise funds for village amenities.

Events

New Year’s Day Paper Boat Race -1 January

Carrying on this tradition which started in the early 80s, the race again took place on New Year’s Day. This year there were between 40-50 entries and in first place was Harrison Smith for the first boat across the reservoir and the Cracknell Trophy (for the boat that looks good – and looks like it should have won but didn’t!) was won by Steven Smalley. Information from Peter Bush, the Commodore.

Circus Tyanna - April

The circus returned to the village once again, this time at The White Horse and featured acts from the Bulgarian State Circus.

Local Council Elections - held on 7 May. The Parish Council was not contested. Seats on the District Council for the Alton Ward were won by an Independent and a Conservative candidate ousting the incumbent and retiring Liberal Democrats respectively thus following a national trend of poor results for the Liberal Democrats although locally the main focus was centred around the proposed housing development at Brantham.

The Alton Water Fun Run - 10 May

The Alton Water Run took place on Sunday 10th May. As usual there were 10k and 5k races to provide competition and challenge and a 2k fun run. The route which started and ended at the Alton Water Visitor Centre came through Tattingstone. This year one well known competitor was Griff Rhys Jones, a local TV personality, who lives in nearby Stutton.

The Alton Water Run supports local schools on the Shotley Peninsula, which rely heavily on the funds raised to go towards equipment and facilities for both indoor and outdoor sports, to help organise school events such as musicals and inter-school tournaments, and to provide funds for school trips and projects.

Village Litter Pick – 13 June

There was a good turnout of volunteers despite it being a rather wet morning and many bags of rubbish were collected from all over the village.

Village Fete – 12 September

This year the village held a traditional summer fete on the playing field on Saturday, 12 September with a medieval theme to coincide with the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. With an estimated 400 visitors almost £1000 was raised and thethree beneficiaries were First Responders, Good Neighbours and the Playing Field. Terry Hunt, the Editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, officially opened the fete and the programme included birds of prey, donkey rides the Silver Spinners Majorettes, Tattingstone Tractors, bell ringing at the church, bouncy castles, dog agility, Punch and Judy, Zorbs, bale tossing and a tug of war. There was also the usual ice cream and tea tent, beer tent and barbecue along with produce stalls, art exhibitions, tombola, raffle and traditional children’s games.

Although the weather started out very unpromising, with lots of rain in the early morning which justabout stopped at 11.30 when the fete started, it remained very windy, but stayed dry until just about packing up time at 4.30.

The Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra – 12th November

Four musicians from the orchestra performed a free concert in the village hall as a result of a Parish Council initiative sponsored by County Council funds through ourCounty Councillor. It was attended by over 40 people.

Highways

During the essential maintenance work to the A12 over the winter months, a diversion through Tattingstone on the A137 was in place when the A12 had to be closed overnight.

There were road works on the A137 over Christmas 2014/New Year 2015 when Anglia Water dealt with a sewage leak.

On 10 February a car overturned on the A137 and a woman who had to be freed from the car was taken to hospital with superficial injuries.

Crime

February - A spate of burglaries were reported in Church Road with cash and jewellery being stolen.

Christmas Illuminations outside 29 Church Road

This has become an annual much admired spectacle and this year £277.57 was raised for St Elizabeth Hospice.

Organisations

The Parish Council

Albert Collins - Chairman

Josephine Stanger - Vice Chairman

Jane Connell-Smith-Parish Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer

David Wood – District Councillor (to May) & County Councillor

Dave Clarke (co-opted from July)

Sue Gipps(co-opted from July)

Caroline Hurley (resigned May)

Andrea Mendel

Sue Kerswell

Bob Self

Linda Smalley (resigned May)

Sheila Tweedie (co-opted from July)

Parish Council elections were held on 7 May and the subsequent changes are noted in the above list. District Council elections saw AlastairMcCraw and Harriet Steer elected to Babergh District Council. The Annual Parish Meeting was held on 14 May. The Parish Council website went live in June –

Key issues throughout the year have included:

• Parking problems around the school caused by inconsiderate parking at the beginning and end of the school day and the potential dangers to pedestrian safety was a very contentious issue during the year. The resulting damage to the grass verge because buses cannot turn left into Lemon’s Hill from the bus stop without mounting the grass.
• Anti-social behaviour problems on and around the Lemon’s Hill Bridge continued to be an issue. With the tragic death of Matthew Dunnett the Parish Council continued to press Anglia Water and Suffolk Police for solutions to these problems and which included fresh detailed signage and the creation in 2016 of a rural clearway.
• The funding rules on affordable housing changed to only include developments of more than five homes which made it unlikely that Tattingstone would benefit.
• Japanese Knotweed was treated near The Wonder but there was no evidence of Ash Dieback disease to any trees in the village.
• Litter and fly tipping in the village, particularly near the A137 towards Wherstead continued to be a problem.
• Dog fouling continued to be a problem on the paths, pavements and playing field.
• Potholes on the road past Road Farm towards the A137.
• The decision was made not to convert the three streetlights in the village to LED because these brighter lights are not suited to environmentally sensitive areas.
• Speedwatch,thecommunityled speed watch team, was considered again but not followed up because of lack of volunteers, a working party was set up to look into speeding problems.
• A sub-committee was set up to look at Neighbourhood Development Plans.
• Opposition to the proposed housing development at Brantham on the grounds of increased traffic along the A137.
• The Suffolk Link (Buzzabout) community transport service covering all villages on the Shotley Peninsular was under scrutiny as part of Suffolk County Council cuts.
• A new road sign to designate The Heath was approved and erected.
• BT had the telephone box near The White Horse repainted in the Spring .
• A Commonwealth flag was purchased to be flown from the Chedworth Place flagpole on Commonwealth Day on 14 March.

• Requests to Anglia Water to paint the railings on Lemon’s Hill Bridge were refused.
• Suffolk Police stopped sending a representative to PC meetings and providing criminal incident figures. The Babergh East Safer Neighbourhood Team meetings were also axed.
• Councillor Josephine Stanger was awarded a Community Achievement Award by Babergh District Council.

Planning Applications considered by the Parish Council:

• Erection of a wind turbine at Pannington Hall – rejected.
• Demoliton of existing outhouse and erection of pool house at Tattingstone Place – recommended for approval with concerns about height of fence to screen building from the reservoir.
• Homeleigh, The Heath – rejected (subsequently approved by Babergh)
• The White Horse – approved (subsequently rejected by English Heritage)
• Extension to 15 Chedworth Place – approved
• Folly Farm - approved

St Mary’s Church

Rev Annette Shannon

Benefice Administrator – Hayley Purnell

Churchwardens – Alison Hobson (to end September) and Albert Collins, who is also the organist.

During the year Dr Peter Green (of Nine Oaks) took on the leadership of the church in the parish, helped bythe Church Secretary (Lynn Tomlinson) and Pastoral aide (Suena Harley). It was also hoped to appoint a Church Verger.

Friends of St Mary’s

Fundraising events included A Murder Mystery evening in March entitled “Dying for a Laugh” held in the village hall. Tickets cost £20 and included a fish ‘n chip supper.

Ladies’ Guild

The Ladies’ Guild held a coffee morning on 15 May.

Every year the Ladies Guild, with the help of volunteers in the village including children at the school,fill shoeboxes as gifts to be sent to children in third world countries through a Christian based charity called The Samaritan’s Purse. In South Suffolk 14,000 were collected – 12,000 for Swaziland and 2,000 for Serbia.

Tattingstone CEVC Primary School

Head Teacher – Beverley Derrett

Approximately 72 children come to the school from both Tattingstone and Wherstead villages and from outside our catchment area, from the neighbouring town of Ipswich or surrounding areas.