Deborah Cadman assures Haverhill that Suffolk County Council supports its future
Suffolk County Councils Chief Executive, Deborah Cadman speaks to an audience of locla business at the Days Inn hotel, Haverhill.
Improvements to Haverhill’s town centre, roads, education, youth provision and more will all be backed by Suffolk County Council.
Such assurances were made by the authority’s chief executive Deborah Cadman when she addressed town firms at the monthly meeting of thebestofhaverhill, held at the Days Inn hotel last Thursday (February 21).
Ms Cadman, who started the post in October 2011 on a salary of £155,000, said: “It’s fantastic seeing Haverhill having this phoenix approach to becoming the place I always knew it could be.”
She said a key concern was raising educational attainment for Suffolk, with the county’s primary schools ranked third from bottom in the country.
Ms Cadman did praise both Castle Manor and Samuel Ward academies, which are ‘delivering top notch educational services in Haverhill’, but said she was surprised by the lack of aspiration of young people in the town.
She said the number of youngsters not in employment, education of training (NEETS) is one in five in Haverhill, but schemes such as work clubs at schools – which have seen 85 per cent of participants find a job – will reduce that.
Among the council’s other priorities she listed are protecting the vulnerable – and encouraging elderly people to stay in their homes rather than moving into residential care – growing localism and protecting what’s good about Suffolk, such as areas of outstanding natural beauty and being the ‘greenest county’.
Ms Cadman said pedestrianisation of the High Street was ‘at an impasse’, and that the town ‘is split between those that do and don’t want it’.
She said the council would listen if the majority of people want it.
Ms Cadman supported current mayor Pat Hanlon and former mayor Maureen Byrne in their calls to improve the town centre, saying the Cineworld complex needs to be better linked to the High Street.
Town clerk Will Austin pressed her on the county’s failure to support youth provision in Haverhill by not awarding the Burton Centre to the town council, saying: “I don’t want to get into a discussion about where the place may be, but the county council has the ability to deliver a solution in terms of a building.”
The county council chose to award the building to St Nicholas Hospice Care to have a community hub rather than for the town council for youth provision, saying the town council’s bid would be taxpayer funded – even though the hospice bid is dependant on £500,000 of Department of Health funding.
Ms Cadman said the county council ‘are committed’ to youth provision.
Addressing transport improvements needed, Deborah Cadman said: “The best solution would be a rail link from Haverhill to Cambridge, but it’s never going to happen.”
She quickly added: “Well not in the next ten years.
“What we need to do is make sure the A1307 works for Haverhill.”
She suggested installing a guided busway to Cambridge, having specific bus routes or new traffic regulations along the A1307.
Ms Cadman said the council annual budget is £1 billion, with around £500 million going to schools and cuts of £50m coming in over the next few years, saying they are ‘cut to the bone’.
For all the latest news see today’s (Thursday, February 21) Echo.
For the full story see next Thursday’s (March 7) Echo.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Haverhill
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 7 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North west
