Yesterday evening Loughton’s Murray Hall bore witness to the 20th Annual Meeting of Loughton Town Council. Established in April 1996, the Town Council acts under Epping Forest District Council, concerning itself primarily with local planning and licensing applications, recreation, environment and heritage concerns.
The remit of the Town Council is not huge, and the issues discussed were certainly not on a par with the pressures on housing and public services discussed at a local Redbridge Council Forum. However, with all Councillors living within the parish of Loughton the Town Council seems at least one level of governance where people care about the local environment and communities. And local it was with talk of bee-keeping, allotments, new hedges and road signs and an emphasis on maintaining a safe, rural, almost villagesque form of ‘Old Loughton’ local identity.
Loughton allotments
The localness of of the Town Councillor’s reports was, however, juxtaposed by some of their recent events. For example, the Council’s participation in ‘Fly a Flag for the Commonwealth‘ day, which saw the Commonweath flag hoisted outside council offices alongside 730 other flags internationally and Commonwealth Affirmation (below) read by Mayor Sharon Weston. The affirmation celebrates the diversity and richness of the Commonwealth, something worth remembering as Britain closes its doors on the world.
Reference to events like Commonwealth Day and the Tour de France, which rode through Epping Forest last summer, remind us that places are not only local but are, often simultaneously local, national and even international. It is for just this reason that research like mine exists: to examine how we live as individuals on different spatial scales,and make sense of our existence and identities in and between each one.
“Joining together as members of one worldwide Commonwealth community, and valuing the personal dignity and worth of every citizen, we raise this flag as a symbol of the ties of kinship and affinity that we cherish. We draw inspiration from our diversity, and the opportunities for working together, as a rich source of wisdom and a powerful influence for good in the world. We affirm our commitment to upholding the values set out in the Commonwealth Charter, to serving one another in a spirit of respect and understanding, and to advancing development, democracy and cooperation locally, nationally, and internationally.”
National Lives, Local Voices 