Debenham Library celebrates 10th birthday as it plans move to larger site

Debenham's tiny library celebrates 10th birthday

Two years ago in Debenham in bright sunshine a crowd gathered outside Debenham Library to campaign against plans to close it. It was at this event that local Conservative MP Dan Poulter signed the petition against closing libraries in Suffolk.

Last night in Debenham in cold and wet weather another crowd gathered outside Debenham Library to celebrate its 10th birthday.

The reason why crowds gather outside the library is that it is truly tiny. The smallest library in Suffolk it was once a fire station and a Barclays Bank branch before it became a library after a local campaign in 2003.

Now part of Suffolk Libraries the local library group has just finished its consultation on moving the library to a much larger space in the primary school. There are still i’s and t’s to be dotted and crossed but this is likely to happen in the Summer.

Proposed new larger home for library in primary school

The new space will provide Debenham with a much larger book stock and both inside and external space to hold events something challenging with the current space.

So at the next celebration hopefully we will not have to rely on the weather for enough space!

There are more pictures from last night's 10th Birthday celebrations on Flickr

Stradbroke Primary School teacher wins "teacher of the year" award

Laura Wilbourn and her class (EADT)

Laura Wilbourn, a teacher at Stradbroke Primary School, has today been announced as the winner of the Pearson Teaching Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School in the East of England.

Laura was presented with her award at a “glorious garden party" celebration at the school today by our local MP Dr Daniel Poulter.

Laura now goes forward to the UK finals of the competition. The final is on 20th October and will be broadcast by the BBC!

Laura joined Stradbroke Primary School as a newly qualified teacher and currently teaches Class 2.

The Press release from competition organisers Pearson gives more details:

Laura Wilbourn of Stradbroke CEVC Primary School in Eye, Suffolk has been announced as the winner of the Pearson Teaching Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School in the East of England. Selected from over 24,000 nominations received by the Pearson Teaching Awards in 2013, 62 celebrations are taking place in schools across England, Northern Ireland and Wales on 17 May 2013 to present prestigious Regional Teaching Awards to outstanding local heroes of education. The Pearson Teaching Awards are an annual celebration of exceptional teachers and teaching, founded in 1999 by Lord Puttnam, they recognize the life-changing impact of an inspirational teacher on the lives of the young people they teach.

Laura was nominated by her headteacher who said: “To put it simply Laura is an inspirational teacher. All children should experience teaching of the quality Laura delivers. From the moment she stepped into the school she changed the lives of those she works with. Her lessons are vibrant, well structured and very importantly- fun! Children not only make good progress under her care but they thrive. She is everything one hopes to find in a teacher and the whole school community have enormous professional respect for her”. Laura will now join fellow winners at the UK final of the Teaching Awards on 20th October, filmed in London and broadcast by the BBC. 

Guy McGregor out of the cabinet as Lisa Chambers leads on Education

Guy McGregor: out of the cabinet

Hoxne, Stradbroke and Eye county councillor Guy McGregor has found himself the casualty of Mark Bee’s attempts to reform his administration. Now out of the Cabinet he secures the sinecure of Chairman of the Council, a post that was due to go to former Tory councillor Anne Whybrow who lost her seat by one vote to UKIP.

Former Education portfolio holder Graham Newman takes over McGregor’s transport brief. His post has been taken by newly elected deputy leader Lisa Chambers who certainly
brings credibility to the post with children herself going through the re-organisation in the Newmarket area where she is a councillor.

Chambers will also face a proposed free school in her own backyard.

Lisa Chambers: Education Brief

This is clearly building on the earlier news that education is to be the surprise priority of this new Council, I say surprise because it never even made it to the top 5 list of promises that Suffolk Tories fought the election on.

That said education certainly needs to be a priority and everyone of good will in Suffolk will be hoping Mark Bee can pull off the much needed improvements and make Suffolk schools feel that the Local Authority is on their side.

Changes in the cabinet don’t end there with three new faces coming into the cabinet.

Becky Hopfensperger

Becky Hopfensperger West Suffolk Councillor Becky Hopfensperger comes into cabinet with an interesting new “localities” brief designed to focus on urban areas and also picks up the library portfolio.

Aldeburgh and Leiston’s Richard Smith takes on a new portfolio comprising Economic Development, Environment and Planning. Ipswich Councillor.

Alan Murray joins cabinet  taking on Adult Care and Health with Colin Noble moved to the Finance brief where he will doubtless boast about keeping Council Tax the same...

Only Colin Spence is spared change retaining his public protection brief.

In perhaps the most bizarre move of the reshuffle Joanna Spicer will join Cabinet but without either a portfolio or pay according to the EADT:

Joanna Spicer

Mrs Spicer’s role – which will be unpaid – will include acting as a liaison between the cabinet and backbench councillors of all parties. 

The divisive Cllr Spicer seems astrange choice as a liaison person and I expect she is more a Tory Chief Whip and UKIP liaison person. It’s difficult to imagine her building bridges across the opposition...

Ipswich Spy Story
Paul Geater’s EADT Story

Suffolk Tories cling to power with majority cut to three

Former Cabinet member Judy Terry who lost her seat

2009 was always going to be a high water mark for Suffolk Tories no matter how they and their friends in Government managed to do. Labour were at an all time low with the leadership of Brown in question and ended up with only four seats in the County.

Government at both county and national level  left much to be desired but it was pretty much assumed that Suffolk Tories would retain control at Endeavour House until the scale of the threat from UKIP became clear. With only one seat in 2009 UKIP have ended up with nine seats but it could have been worse for Suffolk Tories who must look up the A140 in fear to see Norfolk now with no overall control with UKIP the second largest party with 15 seats.

Suffolk Tories now have a majority of three and face a much larger opposition composed of 15 Labour councillors, 9 UKIP, 7 Lib Dems, 3 Independents and 2 Greens.

Leader Mark Bee

Mark Bee is going to have to make changes to his administration with Jane Storey deciding to stay on the back benches and perhaps most spectacularly Judy Terry of library portfolio fame having lost her seat in her Ipswich division.

If he is wise he will take the opportunity to make more changes amongst the cabinet. New faces with more respect across the political spectrum most importantly clearly having the skill and ability to manage their portfolios are a must. Bee needs to look ironically for candidates much more in his own image than most of the people he inherited from Pembroke’s failed administration.

He is bound to stick with new deputy Lisa Chambers who effectively becomes a replacement for the likeable Jane Storey seen as a “safe pair of hands” but amongst the others he could really show his leadership by banishing the likes of McGregor and Noble to the back benches.

The one thing this election says for sure to Suffolk Tories is they can no longer take the County for granted. They are going to have to come up with something much better than Colin Noble’s four year council tax freeze.

With the school reorganisation review still incomplete and clearly losing them votes in some areas it could be education, something they didn’t even mention in their core pledges that causes the most trouble.

Most suffolk schools are small primaries still under County control all of which are about to see their funding quite literally fall off a cliff in 2015. The County Council could show real leadership and work with its schools and support them but this could well mean conflict with the Tory led Wesminster government.

If the Council doesn’t and it is seen as part of the problem in Suffolk and not the solution 2015 could see a mass campaign to save rural primary schools that makes the 2011 library campaign look like a picnic. If Suffolk Tories find themselves on the wrong side of that this could be the last time they are in power in Ipswich for a while.