First Floor, 17 Riduna Park
We were sorry to receive the news that our former tenants, who moved into the upstairs offices in 2020, were vacating the space due to them no longer needing such a large office. However, I am very pleased to report that, as a result of the dedicated hard work of the Clerk and the Assistant Clerk, Melton Parish Council has secured a 5-year contract with Sovereign Turf. They fitted out the office during February and will be moving in at the beginning of March.
We welcome David and all his staff and we look forward to them being our neighbours for at least the next 5 years.
Highways
We have recently been looking at improvements to transport around the village, prompted by requests from residents. Several months ago, we applied for, and were successful in securing, the necessary permission needed to reduce the speed limit along the Wilford Bridge Road. There have been multiple issues associated with scheduling this work, but we have been assured that the work will be completed in February. Let’s hope that by the time you are reading this, the work has been finished, so do watch your speed as you are going up to the Sutton Hoo roundabout! We hope this will make this road much safer for all users but particularly the pedestrians who try to cross this busy road near the Wilford Bridge.
We also surveyed residents and the emergency services about whether it might be possible to make Saddlemakers Lane a ‘No through Road’. Although there was some support for this proposal, many residents expressed concerns. The decision was finally made when the emergency services confirmed that they felt it was ‘unwise’ because it would slow down the services response time in the area. As a result, Saddlemakers Lane will remain two way but we will be exploring other options to slow down the traffic, to make it safer for all users including walkers and cyclists.
Annual Parish Meeting
On 30th April at 7.30, MPC will be host the Melton Annual Parish Meeting at the Burness Rooms. We will be focusing most of the evening on the Neighbourhood Plan and we hope you will come along to see what is being considering and so you can ask questions and have your say. Light refreshments will be available for a small donation, with the funds going towards the fete fund.
Please remember, this is YOUR meeting, not a Parish Council meeting. We will also have updates from the District and County Councillors, and the Parish Council. In addition, other village organisations will be on hand to take questions. Please hold the date in your diary, we hope to see you there.
Welcome to our New Community Police Officer
Melton has recently been assigned a new Community Police Officer, PC Jackie Abbott. MPC staff met with Jackie in early February and they will strive to establish a constructive relationship going forward. Fortunately, things have been fairly quiet recently in the village. No doubt the weather will have had something to do with it. But, as it gets warmer, we will possibly see an increase in anti-social behaviour once again. Please do report any problems to www.suffolk.police.uk. The police can only respond if they know there’s a problem, so the more we report, the more likely we will get a response.
Communications with you
Hopefully, you will have seen the new service, being offered by Melton Parish Council, of posting key notes of interests for locals on Next-door. Recently, this has included a request for volunteers by the Citizens Advice Bureau and Coastal Accessible Transport Services and an offer of 50% off eco-friendly insulation for Suffolk Residents.
For those who do not subscribe to Next-door, we also offer an e-news service. This is in the form of an email, sent to you, when we have important news to send out. Your email address is kept 100% confidential from other receivers and you can ‘unsubscribe’ at any time. We strongly encourage all Melton residents and regular visitors to sign up. The process is very simple. Just visit https://melton-suffolk-pc.gov.uk/, scroll to the bottom of the Home page and put your email address in the box.
For those of you who don’t use technology, we will, of course, continue to write up important notices using Melton Messenger, but it is much slower. Nevertheless, a number of people have said to me how much they look forward to reading my column and how informative it is. That’s great and I thank you for your feedback. Its good to know that this article can be helpful.
2025 Melton Village Fete
Finally, I can’t believe that once again we are in the full swing of planning the village fete. The fete is on Saturday, 14th June, from 11.00am until 3.00pm. The Punch and Judy is booked, as are several new and exciting visitors like the Norfolk and Suffolk 4×4 Response Team.
However, we do need help, planning, booking events, running stalls or setting up and clearing down on the day. We are a friendly and dedicated team who welcome anyone who fancies ‘getting involved’ in some way. If you are new to the area, needing to meet new people or in need of a new challenge, please get in touch. You will be surprised how quickly you will become part of the fabric of the village. If you want to have a stall, or fancy getting involved, please send either Deborah Darby or me an email. Cllr.darby@melton-suffolk-pc.gov.uk or Cllr.carol.gradwell@melton-suffolk-pc.gov.uk.
Carol Gradwell, Chair Melton Parish Council
