Swaffham Newsletter

In Touch With Your Town
'In Touch with your Town' is put
together by the Town Clerk Richard
Bishop or occasionally by the
Deputy Town Clerk Claire Smith. It
deals with some of the most topical items of the
day and the odd item where the Council want to
share information with the Town.
TOWN CENTRE WORKS
By the time you are reading this Quinn Construction
Ltd will have finished the main contract for works
in the Town Centre, the 15-week contract was to
complete the following: -
• overhauling the electrics - to enable sockets for
events
• levelling the raised ridges of the cobbles - to
take away trip hazards and make the area more
usable for the public
• adding new seats and light bollards – going in
around the Buttercross
• new street lights being erected - to light up
the car park, with some new electrical sockets for
Market traders to use
•new electric car charging points - at either side
of the car park
•new car park meters – to enable Breckland
Council to manage the 2-hour free parking - there
are no plans for car park charges.
•Free WiFi - will be available in the Town Centre.
Please note there will be two further car park
machines installed after the 23rd November,
but this will involve re-siting of any builders’
compound away from the Central area, as the
ticket machines will be located in the Town Pit
and the Pedlars Car Park respectively, this is a
separate contract being carried out for Breckland
Council. Next month there will be details of how
to use the new facilities, as some things are still
in progress outside of the contract that will be
better to roll out as one, when all of the details
are available.
There will be details circulated to Market Traders
individually and there will be further details
available in respect of the car charging points
and the free Wifi. The information will probably
be launched on social media before the next
newsletter.
CHRISTMAS LIGHT SWITCH-ON & MARKET
The Christmas Light Switch-On and Christmas
Market on Sunday 2nd December from 12 noon
until 6pm as the Christmas Market is always well
38
attended and the Switch-On taking place at 5pm.
A full afternoon's entertainment, with a visit from
‘Father Christmas’ and Live Reindeer. A full report
on this event next time.
REMEMBRANCE – 100 years commemoration events
A month of local commemoration of 100 years
since the end of WW1 in Swaffham culminated
at the weekend with the traditional Act of
Remembrance at the Town War Memorial. This
year the town also took part in the national
‘Battle’s Over’ tribute.
Town Mayor, Colin Houghton, launched The
Swaffham Poppy Display back in August, the idea
was for the whole town to join in and help create
a really special commemorative display and how
they delivered. Everyone joined in from churches
and businesses to schools and local community
groups. Businesses throughout the town set up
their own window displays or offered space to
display creations from community groups. The
centre piece has been the display of poppies at
the Market Cross Café, but the whole town looked
fantastic. It was so good to see Swaffham at its
best, both aesthetically with the displays and
the community spirit it brought in the process.
In the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, the
weekend saw the completion of their Four Years
and One Hundred Days of commemoration. A
Remembrance Net was set up in the church where
visitors could place a card with their Prayer,
Remembrance or Thoughts as well as a Display by
the War Memorial Chapel, with details of the 112
Men, from the Parishes of Swaffham and Sporle
with Palgrave, who made the ultimate sacrifice. As
always, the Royal British Legion worked tirelessly
organising and planning the events. On Thursday
evening they held their annual Remembrance
Concert at the Parish Church. Well attended as
always, the entertainment included the Convent
School Choir and Dancers and Dereham Town
Band. Then on Sunday the morning the Act of
Remembrance brought the Swaffham Community
together with representatives from the Legion,
all branches of the civilian and military uniform
services and Scouting and Guiding groups.
On Sunday the town joined the national ‘Battle’s
Over’ tribute starting with a Lone Piper, Brian
Baxter, playing Battle’s O’er at 6am. In the
evening there was a Service at the War Memorial
followed by the lighting a WW1 Beacon of Light,
the Town Crier’s Cry for Peace Around the World
and the church bells Ringing Out for Peace. A
fitting end to a special month for the town.
“Do you want to be a Councillor?”
TOWN COUNCIL ELECTIONS
The Town Council are running two taster events
“Do you want to be a Councillor?” one at 5pm on
Wednesday 12th December, leading into the Full
Council meeting later that evening and another as
we get a little nearer the election date on Thursday
28th February 2019 at 6.30pm-8pm. These events
will be targeting anyone who is thinking about
standing for election but would like to know a
little more about the Town Council before they
take the final step. How do we operate? What
services do we run? What land and property do
we manage? What are we responsible for? What
exactly does a Town Councillor do? What is the
role of the Town Council within the community?
How does the Town Council fit in with Breckland
Council and Norfolk County Council? All the things
you ever wanted to ask about a Town Council ???
IN MY BACK YARD
The Swaffham Neighbourhood Plan is a
community-led document for guiding the future
development of our Town. It is about the use and
development of land over the next 20 years. The
plan will set out a vision and aspirations for the
future development of the Town and will be an
important document that will help influence and
control the way our Town changes in the future,
including any new housing developments. This is
the 10th article designed to give you the latest
information.During September our task was to
go through comments received and see how we
could update/review the draft plan. This took
some time and thanks to the working group for
all their analysis and consideration. In October
work continued on the background “supporting”
documents that have to accompany the main
plan and these are now ready. We have now
finalised the draft plan and the Town full Council
have signed this latest draft off at its November
meeting. The plan has been submitted formally
to Breckland District Council with the supporting
documents. We then have a period of waiting
until an “independent examiner” is appointed
and reviews the plan.
As you may also know, Breckland Council
themselves are in the stages of developing their
39
own “Local Plan”. Work on this continues until
into the new year. The timing of this is helpful
in many ways to us as our Towns Neighbourhood
plan has to sit alongside Breckland’s Plan and
cannot be contradictory to it. Please have a look
at our documents as they very much set out the
local scene for many years to come
Keep up to date on the Town Council Website
www.swaffhamtowncouncil.gov.uk
Contact details Rachel Leggett, project manager
swaffhamplan@gmail.com
Town Council Dates
Wednesday 12th - Full Town Council meeting
6.30 p.m. - 9.00 p.m.
Council Chamber, Town Hall.
Monday 17th – Market Committee meeting
6.30 p.m. - 9.00 p.m.
Council Chamber, Town Hall.
Tuesday 18th – N Plan -Steering Group 10.00am
Planning committee 1.30pm
Council Chamber, Town Hall.
The Town Council
Mayor – Cllr Colin Houghton 01760 336 025
Deputy Mayor – Cllr Jill Skinner 01760 336 121
Cllr Steven Allen
07825 801 605
Cllr Robert Bartram
01760 721 022
Cllr Wendy Bensley
01760 722 524
Cllr Brenda Bowler
01760 788 519
Cllr Jan Buckley-Stevens
01760 722 604
Cllr Paul Darby
Cllr Terry Jennison
01760 720 608
Cllr Sheila Lister
01760 720 114
Cllr Shirley Matthews
01760 723 205
Cllr Les Scott
01760 720 465
Cll Anne Thorp
01760 722 611
01760 622725
Breckland Councillors:
Cllr Paul Darby, Cllr Shirley Matthews and
Cllr Ian Sherwood 07795 236878
twitter@ CllrIanSherwood (your.cllr@breckland.gov.uk)
Your County Councillor is Cllr Ed Colman
07940 406356 / email ed.colman.cllr@norfolk.gov.uk
Officers
Richard Bishop – Town Clerk
townclerk@swaffhamtowncouncil.gov.uk
Twitter - @SwaffhamClerk
Claire Smith - Deputy Town Clerk
deputyclerk@swaffhamtowncouncil.gov.uk
Hannah Duggan – Office Administrator
administrator@swaffhamtowncouncil.gov.uk
Swaffham Town Council
Tel: 01760 722 922
www.swaffhamtowncouncil.gov.uk
Town Hall Opening Times
Monday 9.30am-1pm and 1.30pm-4pm
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday : 9:30am-1pm