We held our special Parish Meeting yesterday evening, 24th August, at Horham Community Centre.
It was initially chaired by Elizabeth Gibson-Harries, our old District Councillor who is currently Chair of Horham and Athelington Parish Council.
The main item on the agenda was to elect a new Parish Meeting Chair following the resignation of Ian Winter.
The meeting was very well attended - there were 36 people present in total of whom 33 were Redlingfield Residents (a record turnout I believe).
The only candidate for Parish Meeting Chair was Midge Gibbons - and she was elected by 27 votes for, none against and with 4 abstentions.
(Note: The meeting did vote to include the Absentee Ballots (13 in total were received) but in the event they were not opened as the vote in the room was so substantial). Interestingly - adding the 13 absentee voters to the 31 electors at the meeting means that 45% of our local electors got involved!.
Midge Gibbons took over as Chair of the Meeting once she was elected and thanked Elizabeth Gibson-Harries.
Midge is now busy settling in to her new role, though having previously been Parish Clerk, then Treasurer and then Neighbourhood watch co-ordinator, it's more a matter of re-familiarising herself with things. Her contact details are midgegibbons@gmail.com and 01379 678169
Having taken the Chair, Midge reminded people of all the upcoming events and especially mentioned the inauguration of the new Defibrillator in the phone box at 11.30am on Wednesday 1st September.
On behalf of the Parish, Midge thanked Ian Winter for his fundraising efforts as well as all the donors. The final figures are still being put together but more than £3,300 has been donated - of which £2,150 has been spent getting the Defibrillator running and installed in the phone box. Ian will continue to co-ordinate the Defibrillator weekly checks and seminar activities.
Katie Abbott asked the meeting to thank Janet & Mike for their generosity and hard work, over a number of years, for the village, the meeting agreed and they were given a round of applause.