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Having interviewed the Clerk to Ashingdon Parish Council last year it seemed only right that we do a follow up with the Chairman of the Council, Debbie Constable, a mother, a past social housing worker, and treasurer for the last twelve years to the 1st Ashingdon Scout Group. It is open for any resident to attend Council Meetings and rather than try to cover the obvious things the Council deal with regularly, we would more generally cover Debbie’s role and note perhaps things that may arise in the future. We hope this will give you a flavour of the people who so quietly serve the community in our Parish Councils.


Rochford Life: Debbie how long have you actually been on the Ashingdon Parish Council?
Debbie: I came on to the Council, it must have been June 2008, and have been chairman since May 2010.

RL: What got you onto the Council,
Debbie: Originally probably because I started to have a moan to the right people about lack of activities and things to do for the age group eleven to fifteen in the area. That was when my own son was of that age.  They had a vacancy on the Council which they couldn’t fill so they asked if I would like to be co-opted onto the Council and that’s when I got on, in June 2008 and that’s when it started.

RL: Is becoming Chairman an automatic thing, that you take it in turn? How does it happen in Ashingdon?
Debbie: In Ashingdon Parish you put your name forward and then it’s a vote amongst the councillors, so it’s not a question of if you’re deputy one year you automatically step up. I stepped straight to Chairman because the chair-person at that time didn’t want to re-stand. It was a little bit of a shock because my name went into the hat and then I was voted in and I thought, “Oh, well, let’s give it a go,” and that was it really.  

RL: When I interviewed your Clerk, Kelly, she gave me a list of the powers of a Parish Council, which seem pretty awesome at first sight, and I’ve seen the Minutes of a meeting which also seemed pretty formidable. Does this take a lot of time in your life?
Debbie: As Chairman it can do but it does depend on how much you want to be involved and how much you want to go out and represent the Parish at other events.  

RL: Is the work routine or is it a case of you being proactive, making things come about?  
Debbie: As a Council at the moment we are trying to be more proactive and bring things about rather than just let them happen and then react to them. We are trying to go down a more proactive route.

RL: So what sort of things would you like to see happening in 2012?
Debbie: In 2012 I would definitely like to see the Skateboard Park at the back of the playing fields at King Georges. The Parish has wanted to put something like that there for many years and it’s only in the last, maybe, three to four years that we’ve gone for it, so I’d like to see that come about. We’re also hoping – we’ve agree in principle so I’m hoping the Council can offer some school holiday activities as well for certain age groups, different from football. You can always get football in the school holidays but we’ve got our fingers crossed that we might be able to come up with something different. One of the problems is that Ashingdon Parish does not own a hall of its own. The memorial hall is a possibility but we are also exploring the possibility of using St. Andrew Church Hall as well. Being smaller it could accommodate a smaller group of people.  

RL: Bearing in mind that I believe the vast majority of local residents have little or no knowledge of Council matters – and may have little interest – does that seem a little depressing sometimes, making you feel you’re a little bit out on your own?
Debbie: It can do but we hold on to the hope that by providing things, say for youngsters, it might spread the word more, that there is a Parish Council that can do things to help and assist the residents. We’re also hoping that now we’ve got the Newsletter up and running that that obviously will spread the word among our own parishioners more. Hopefully it will help get people to understand what we do and they can also appreciate that they actually live in an area that has got a Parish Council. Rochford District is lucky because it is fully parished. You can go to other Councils that may have only one or two Parish Councils.

RL: Does Ashingdon itself have a clear identity, do you think?
Debbie: Personally, I think it is difficult to give Ashingdon an identity of its own, because you have from Brays Lane on the even side of Ashingdon Road, which you follow all the way across to Leamington Road in Hockley, then you take on a little more of Ashingdon at the top of the hill and go out towards South Fambridge and around Lower Road as far as Beckney Woods.  So Ashingdon is not a nice little enclave with an in and an out, if you see what I mean, so I personally think it is difficult to give it a specific personal identity

RL: Do you think a clearer identity would help your work and help your people come together a bit more?
Debbie: I think so. It is difficult because it’s just the way the Parish lines were drawn hundreds of years ago.

RL: Coming back to you as the chairman. How long will you remain as chairman?
Debbie: You do it for one year. Every chairman gets re-elected and it’s your own personal choice as much as anything, whether you’re willing to do another year, or wanting to step down. Somebody else may say they fancy having a go so then you would have a vote.   

RL: As I said, Kelly gave me a list of the powers that are there, but I suspect some of them aren’t applicable? For example you don’t have allotments in Ashingdon do you?
Debbie: No, we don’t at the moment. We have had some people ask about them so we are trying to find any land that would be suitable and that includes being easily accessible, and then you’ve got to look at the cost of providing it.  

RL: OK, burial grounds, providing and maintaining public clocks, and maintaining church yards – all on the list. Any of those  
Debbie: No we don’t have burial grounds or a public clock, but we give an allowance to St. Andrew each year to help them maintain the churchyard and also All Saints on the Fambridge Road.

RL: Crime Prevention, another on Kelly’s list.
Debbie: Well we can make suggestions and see if you can get the Neighbourhood Officers to do more proactive work. For instance we’ve had some problems with speeding along the Ashingdon Road so they come and do speed checks and that sort of thing. Short of that it is very limited.

RL: Maintaining footpaths, acquiring land holding markets even? Farmers Markets?
Debbie: Well we can do and it would be lovely to have a Farmers Market but again you’re looking at getting use of the Memorial Hall, and you’re always conscious that when you’re picking a day something else could be going on and you don’t want to be doing it when other similar markets are on in the area.

RL: How will you feel when you step down in May, that you’ve achieved something?
Debbie: I’d like to think that something has been achieved, but I’ll be more than happy to support whoever steps into the chair.

RL: A final question. Do you have much contact with the District Council?
Debbie:  I don’t but the Clerk has more contact with the Council than any of us would have as individual councillors because she is the responsible officer and if we come up with an idea or we want information then it’s Kelly who is the liaison and feeds the information back.  I have contact with Rochford District because I’m one of the Parish representatives on their Standards Committee