Demi, our resident voice officer for Haverhill and the surrouding areas has now gone on maternity leave and we wish her the best with her next chapter and look forward to welcoming her back. We will share more about the new member of the team joining in a few weeks.

This month, we held our first combined neighbourhood check-in and resident drop-in event on the Chalkstone in Haverhill. The event welcomed 10 residents alongside several members of the wider community who attended to speak with the West Suffolk recycling team.

Residents raised a range of topics, with repairs, grounds maintenance and support services being the most common themes. It also provided an opportunity for informal conversations, with one resident commenting on how friendly and approachable the team were.

Alongside resident engagement, the team has also been strengthening relationships with community partners. Discussions have taken place with Reach regarding future joint coffee mornings at the new Stourview Centre, and opportunities are being explored to support local community events over the coming months.

Reach have also applied to our Community Investment Grant (CIG). They are looking for £5,000 towards helping them better support the community. You can read more about this and tell us if you think we should support this project here.

As part of our ongoing work to improve recycling across our communities, the resident voice team recently partnered with Chilton Community Primary School in Stowmarket to help raise awareness of the new better recycling scheme.

The children were invited to design posters encouraging residents to use the new bins correctly.

The three winning posters will be professionally displayed in our bin stores across Stowmarket to help residents understand the changes and recycle correctly. We look forward to sharing the winners with you soon.

If you don’t already know me, I am Jordan, the resident voice officer for Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding areas.

Resident engagement remained a key focus throughout the month. We hosted a coffee morning at Beetons Lodge, where residents enjoyed a cupcake decorating activity before sharing the remaining cakes with residents at Lucy Adams House. The event was attended by six residents and also gave one of our community champions the opportunity to introduce herself and explain how the programme supports local communities.

As part of our ongoing work to improve recycling across our communities, the resident voice team recently partnered with Drake Primary school in Thetford to help raise awareness of the new better recycling scheme.

The Eco Council where invited to design a poster encouraging residents to use the new bins correctly.

The school received gardening tools and a hedgehog house for its Eco Council, while participating pupils were presented with certificates in recognition of their work. The winning designs are now being prepared for production and installation and we look forward to sharing the design with you soon.

I am also working closely with our Neighbourhood and Estates team to identify green spaces that could do with our support. I am currently working on three areas and I hope our proposals will have a positive effect on the community and the residents that live there.