Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council

Farewell to Tom English.

I am sad to have to report that Tom English has decided to ‘call it a day’ as far as the Parish Council is concerned. Tom was by far the longest serving member of the Council, with  thirty-two years of devoted service to the community to his credit. For eleven of those years he occupied the chair, and under his leadership the Parish Council achieved many things and earned the Council a high reputation. Highlights included:  the initiation of the Lynsted Design Statement, the establishment of the Cellar Hill and Greenstreet Conservation Area, the planting of the Millennium Hedge, the creation of a Community Orchard, the opening up of Parish Council meetings to the public, the publishing of a Parish Plan, and, a project dear to his heart, the completion of a long stretch of footway along the previously dangerous Lynsted Lane. 

Tom successfully presided over the assessment of hundreds of planning applications, the introduction of various forms of ‘modernisation’ (freedom of information, codes of conduct, transparency, the internet, subsidiarity etc.) and dealt with a myriad of enquiries from parishioners in his typically fair and courteous way.

As Vice-chairman over the past, difficult, year Tom has been a tower of strength in supporting me as the ‘rookie’ new chairman, for which I am most grateful.

Our parish owes much to Tom’s careful but determined efforts.  His absence from the Parish Council will be deeply felt.  On behalf of his fellow councillors, past and present, I wish him, Barbara and the family all the very best for his ‘real’ retirement.

Bob Baxter.