Festival of consultation lined up for town next week
Friday, 4th March 2011.
Haverhill is set for a week of consultation meetings next week, on subjects as diverse as the town's future development, the cuts to the fire service and local police activity.
The meeting-fest kicks off on Monday evening with a drop-in session at the Leisure Centre between 4pm and 7pm about Haverhill Vision 2031, the new masterplan being prepared for the town.
Then on Tuesday evening at Tesco cafe, starting at 7.30pm, there is the quarterly Safer Neighbourhood Team public meeting, when you can go along and tell the police what you think they should be doing.
Along with other agencies the police work on three priorities, set monthly, but with input from the public at quarterly meetings.
Currently there are only two priorities, both about anti-social behaviour, one in Strasbourg Square on the Chalkstone estate and one in Leiston Road on the Clements estate, both areas of shops.
On Thursday, March 10, there is a double whammy, with a drop-in session on Vision 2031, with special reference to north-east Haverhill, at the New Croft football complex from
4-7pm, followed by a public meeting in the fire station about fire service cuts.
Suffolk County Council is proposing to reduce Haverhill's full-time firefighters from 12 to eight, by having weekends covered by the on-call firefighters. The public meeting is part of a consultation process on the proposals.
At a recent meeting of Haverhill Town Council addressed by the county's deputy chief fire officer Mike Hardingham, Cllr Maureen Byrne said members were concerned there could be an increase in fatalities as a result, because the on-call firefighters take between three and five minutes longer, on average, to turn out.
Mr Hardingham agreed there were implications but said they considered this the safest of the options available to help save the 12 per cent required on their budget.
"We think we know what the impact will be," he said. "If it's different we would have a choice about what we do next, but it may be there would have to be more community fire safety work."
The meeting-fest kicks off on Monday evening with a drop-in session at the Leisure Centre between 4pm and 7pm about Haverhill Vision 2031, the new masterplan being prepared for the town.
Then on Tuesday evening at Tesco cafe, starting at 7.30pm, there is the quarterly Safer Neighbourhood Team public meeting, when you can go along and tell the police what you think they should be doing.
Along with other agencies the police work on three priorities, set monthly, but with input from the public at quarterly meetings.
Currently there are only two priorities, both about anti-social behaviour, one in Strasbourg Square on the Chalkstone estate and one in Leiston Road on the Clements estate, both areas of shops.
On Thursday, March 10, there is a double whammy, with a drop-in session on Vision 2031, with special reference to north-east Haverhill, at the New Croft football complex from
4-7pm, followed by a public meeting in the fire station about fire service cuts.
Suffolk County Council is proposing to reduce Haverhill's full-time firefighters from 12 to eight, by having weekends covered by the on-call firefighters. The public meeting is part of a consultation process on the proposals.
At a recent meeting of Haverhill Town Council addressed by the county's deputy chief fire officer Mike Hardingham, Cllr Maureen Byrne said members were concerned there could be an increase in fatalities as a result, because the on-call firefighters take between three and five minutes longer, on average, to turn out.
Mr Hardingham agreed there were implications but said they considered this the safest of the options available to help save the 12 per cent required on their budget.
"We think we know what the impact will be," he said. "If it's different we would have a choice about what we do next, but it may be there would have to be more community fire safety work."
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