Bourne Comment

COUNCIL CLERK NELLY JACOBS TO RETIRE

We are to lose our clerk to the town council, Nelly Jacobs, popular and hard-working who has served the authority for the past fifteen years, the longest term in office since it was formed in 1974 but who has now decided to retire this summer.

During her tenure, Nelly has given the town council a new importance and authority by raising its profile and through her dedicated work for the annual East Midlands in Bloom competition, fostered an awareness of the importance of a town looking its best at all times.

The official description of her appointment is clerk to Bourne Town Council but is referred to mostly as the town clerk, a post held by Nelly since 2000 and who has proved to be one of the most efficient since the authority was formed in 1974 as well as being their Responsible Financial Officer (RFO).

She was born at Lucerne in Switzerland in 1953 and moved to England in the 1970s. Since 1986, she has lived in Bourne and now regards the town as her adopted home, having worked here in various capacities, with one of the local building societies and as school administrator at the former Robert Manning School (now Bourne Academy) and Bourne Abbey Primary School (now the Abbey Primary Academy).

She is married to Jake, formerly with the Royal Air Force whose service took them to many parts of the world including Singapore, and they now live in Hazelwood Drive and have three grown up children, Neal, aged 39, Tom, 38, and Sabrina, 34, and eight grandchildren. "When we first moved here, I never thought we would stay this long but Bourne has a tendency to grow on you", she said. "I had several jobs and was occasionally dealing with different tiers of local government but my understanding of how it all worked was limited."

All that has changed and during the past fifteen years Nelly has become a mine of information about the workings of our councils at parish, district and county levels and is frequently consulted by councillors about the rules, regulations and procedures. She is also an extremely proficient photographer and her work illustrates the town council’s web site and has also been used in many facets of her council work.

Since her appointment, Nelly has become a major influence in many projects such as preparations for the waste recycling centre in Pinfold Road, the instigator in re-opening and managing of the public toilets in South Street, the Stamford and Bourne Community Car Scheme, the town cemetery which has won awards on two occasions, and was co-ordinator of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002 which provided the town with three days of entertainment, including a street parade and other attractions and the introduction of the annual beer festival.

A major success has been in helping co-ordinate the East Midlands in Bloom competition which we know locally as Bourne in Bloom, of which Nelly is particularly proud, having won for nine successive years in the medium-sized town category with silver gilt awards since 2008. She and the former town manager, Ivan Fuller, became the prime movers for this annual event in which the town is tidied up and adorned with flowers and plants in readiness for the visit of the judges each summer and her energy and enthusiasm for the task in hand has been the main reason for the continuing success.

"Our awards have been a fantastic achievement", she said, "because it shows what can happen when the community works together with volunteers giving their time to spruce up their surroundings and make the town look attractive."

The town is still aiming for a gold award which will need a total of 170-200 points and is classed as outstanding. “We have been steadily increasing our rating each year", said Nelly, "and we are now only a few points away which means that it might be achievable soon, especially if there is more input from business premises in the town centre. Each year has been a really excellent achievement and we hope that it serves as a reminder to everyone to keep our town clean and tidy 365 days of the year.”

In July 2010, after completing ten years as clerk, the anniversary passed without fuss and it was business as usual. "Local government can be very frustrating because it is so slow", she said. "There is a wide variety of work to be done and you have to maintain good contacts with the public at all times although that can sometimes be very difficult.

“However, once I became better informed about the various sections of the Local Government Act, I started a long battle with South Kesteven District Council about the charges that were raised for the town council accommodation within the Town Hall. It certainly proved that it is worth sticking with your guns if you know you are right and in the end I managed to claim a refund of a few thousand pounds and one year’s free accommodation for the town council.”

Nellie also spotted early on that the council was being charged for sewage at the cemetery although it was not connected to the public sewer and again managed to reclaim seven years of payments but unfortunately the invoices on file did not go further back otherwise the claim would have been even greater.

“I have always striven to be careful with the taxpayer’s money to the point where my colleagues have called me a Scrooge”, she said. “For instance, I retain non-confidential papers and use the other side for anything that does not need to be kept indefinitely. I also switch the light off if not needed, and so on. In fact, I feel more comfortable spending my own money than that of other people.”

The town council met at the Town Hall until March 2013 when Nelly supervised their move to new offices upstairs at the Corn Exchange where the new Community Access Point had been established, bringing all council services at county, district and town level under one roof with the public library and registration office. There is less space but it remains business as usual.

In her spare time, Nelly enjoys skiing whenever possible, walking, cycling and gardening and visiting friends and family abroad. "But we do like Bourne because it has a lot of history, a low crime rate and excellent educational facilities", she said. "It is a friendly town and I cannot think of living anywhere else in England."

She has had a busy fifteen years and has served with sixteen mayors but is now looking forward to the more leisurely life of retirement although the prospect is an attractive one. “I have a lot of family in this country and abroad”, she said, “and it would be nice to visit without time restrictions and see the odd school play without having to work around time off. With three children and eight grandchildren, there will certainly be plenty to do.

“Most of all, I will have time to do what I want. I like gardening, cooking, knitting and of course meeting up with friends. It will be a busy time and I am looking forward to it.”

Nelly is to leave her post in August and Ian Sismey, who has been deputy clerk, will succeed her, the appointment being ratified by a special meeting of Bourne Town Council on Tuesday (June 16th) when members were unanimous in their decision. He will no doubt commit himself to the task in hand but is sure to find that Nelly will be a hard act to follow.

Note: This article was published by the Bourne web site on 19th June 2015