MPC(24)39
Reports from Outside Bodies
Burness Parish Room Management Committee – Nothing to report
Melton Trust – After a quite could of months, The Melton Trust has received a few applications. Our AGM will be held on Tuesday, 19th March and our Annual Return to the Charity Commission will be filed after that. We will also produce a full report for the Annual Parish Meeting – Cllr Martin
Melton Primary School – A project manager has been assigned to the nursery building project by Concertus. A topography survey is being planned but there have been no further design meetings booked. A canopy was installed in the February half term to enable children to change in/out of wet weather clothing without being open to the elements and to protect the classrooms from getting muddy and wet. Year 3 and 4 classrooms have been redecorated and new cupboards installed. Acoustic panels are being fitted to the main hall in the Easter holidays. The recent Reading Festival was well attended and the ‘dress as an ambitious word’ for World Book Day was very popular. On 11th March, 18 pupils from Year 5 visited Snape Maltings to take part in the annual Celebration of Music event. The children prepared two songs to perform, linked to their topic work for the term: Our Amazing Planet. The first was the popular pop song “Shotgun” by George Ezra. However, they rewrote the words, to highlight all the amazing features and creatures of our planet and created their own dance routine to accompany it. The second was “Heal the World” by Michael Jackson, which they performed with a mixture of solos, small group singing and whole class elements. At the end of the concert, Melton joined all the other performers on stage for a finale song, composed especially for the event by Jessie Maryon Davies. It was a rousing performance enjoyed by all – Clerk
Melton Messenger – Nothing to report
Suffolk Association of Local Councils (SALC) – Nothing to report
Suffolk Disability Forum – Nothing to report
Melton, Woodbridge and Deben Community Partnership – Nothing to report
Woodbridge and Melton Society – The Society’s AGM was held on 6th March with over 100 members in attendance. The officers of the Committee were elected. More will be co-opted in the coming year as some of the existing members step down. Tim Cornford has now stepped down as the Society Newsletter long standing editor. A replacement is being sought. For the next edition a freelance editor will be paid for. There was a discussion about Active Travel Woodbridge. The Committee will be submitting a formal response to the current proposals. Society members were encouraged to do the same. The Blue Plaque, in honour of Sir Archibald Garrod, at Wilford Lodge is due to be unveiled in June – Cllr Bann
Deben Estuary Partnership – A steering group meeting was held on March 14. After the decision to update the 2015 Deben Estuary Plan this year, leaders of each of 10 groups gave updates on their progress. Put together this will comprise the updated Plan. I have joined the Flood Risk Management group headed by David Kemp of the Environment Agency. I felt this was the most appropriate group for Melton Parish Council to be part of. Another Water Quality and Wastewater Disposal Group is being led by Ruth Leach of Woodbridge.
My group met on March 18 to run through the section on Flooding. It included Giles Bloomfield from DEFRA. We ran through about 50 2015 statements and updated them to reflect today’s issues. The worry is that if river defences are breached in Hollesley and/or Bawdsey, it will mean serious flooding in Melton, Woodbridge and Waldringfield. As previously stated, the storms in October 2023 almost topped the Bawdsey defences, the surge from the sea came at low tide thank goodness.
Once the changes have been rewritten, checked and agreed they will form part of the updated Plan – Cllr Packard
Climate Advocate/Adaptive Action Group – Nothing to report
