Birchington Parish Council Chairman Neville Hudson

Local readers may not be aware of the Christine Simon novel: The Man Who Pulled His Village from the Sea. Based in a tiny Italian village; the story is about the love of home and belonging somewhere and, most importantly… community. A little closer to home, I was honoured to sit down and chat with a man who is the embodiment of all of the above, Birchington Parish Council Chairman Neville Hudson, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday.

 

Having lived in the village for 60 years, Neville has been an influential figure and pioneer of positivity in Birchington through a variety of many different roles and I took a trip down memory lane with the Chairman as he reminisced back to his 20s:

“I’m originally from Herne Bay but came to Birchington in 1961. After I completed an electrical apprenticeship, I was offered an opportunity to start up a business in Birchington in electrical contracting and retail located at Station Approach. When I started, the business we had was called WE RICHES but after 10 years, I purchased it and changed the name to N HUDSON.

“At the very beginning when we were building the business, I immediately joined the Birchington Chamber of Commerce which then led me to be involved in lots of other Birchington organizations. This was the beginning of my public service in the village.”

 

And what a public service it has been!

Neville worked his way up to the role of President of the Chamber of Commerce and it wouldn’t take long for him to establish himself amongst other local groups as a familiar, friendly and assertive face within the community. One of Neville’s first aims was to help bring a Village Centre to Birchington, a pillar of the community which still stands strong today, he recalls:

“In the 1960s, we were looking to start the Village Centre which I was actively involved in and held the position of Vice Chairman of the Village Centre Association when they built it. They actually started building the Village Centre in 1972 but we had been fundraising from the mid-60s to raise money.

“The main fundraising came from Quexpo (the three-day steam fair held at Quex). When Mr Christopher Powell Cotton was alive, he gave us a free run of the estate every August bank holiday weekend for 16 years. We would get 30,000-40,000 people over every summer.”

 

Subsequent to the Village Centre project, Neville became a founding member of Birchington Heritage Trust, a member of the Birchington Residents Association and president of the Birchington Silver Band.

He was also part of an organisation called Canterbury Road Improvement Scheme Birchington, (CRISAB) where representatives of Chamber of Commerce and Birchington Residents Association worked on improvements in Birchington and successfully fought for the dual carriageway through to Birchington Square.

Neville had not only started to make a serious impact in the village but also started his family in Birchington as his children were educated in schools locally. With a desire for education, Neville stepped into the educational field, holding the position of school governor for 40 years, predominantly at King Ethelbert’s School where he was also the Chair of the governing body for a long period.

 

A passion to help combined with a ‘civic conscious’ has been with Neville from when he was in school and year after year it only grows more passionately as he tells me why, at 80, he still gets up with the same drive and determination he had 50 years ago:

“I had an enthusiasm for local politics from as early as my school days. We had a curriculum item called Civics and I had an inspirational Civics master that really gave me an interest in local government, hence, that stayed with me all my life and that’s why I became a Cllr.

“I have a huge civic conscious and I like the area I live in to be the best it can be for both young and old. I am passionate about education; I am passionate about housing; everybody deserves somewhere to live and every child deserves a high-quality education. These are my personal challenges that make me tick, besides working with wonderful, hard-working staff of course!”

Neville’s first throws into local government came in 1976 where he served as an Independent Cllr for Thanet Council. An emphatic 29-year service saw Neville also hold the position of Mayor of Margate (1982-83) and spend 7 years as leader of Thanet District Council.

 

Having lived here for more than half a century and put so much time and work into his community, I had to ask Neville what he loved most about Birchington? He gleefully tells me:  

“I think it’s the community spirit and togetherness in Birchington that is absolutely brilliant and I am extremely glad to be a part of that. An example of this is last year during lockdown, so many selfless and incredible volunteers came forward to help the housebound and less able members of our society. I was particularly pleased that I was able to help organise the use of the Birchington Village Centre for testing.

“We have so many wonderful groups like Birchington in Bloom, Lorraine Castle and her team work extremely hard to make our village look as beautiful as it does and Karen Everest who is the village litter heroine, ensuring our streets are kept tidy and rubbish free.

“Over time, the population has also increased, more than doubled in fact and there have been many changes brought about by economics but we are really lucky to have a booming shopping street with many independent traders that have been in business for a long time.

“I enjoy walking in Birchington and the experience of walking around the village is now so much more improved by the work that the Parish Council have done. We have marvellous seafront and countryside walks that will sadly disappear with the new proposed housing but we are working hard to produce a neighbourhood plan for Birchington which is mentioned in this edition.”

 

Coincidentally, Neville’s actions and work over the past 60 years rather fittingly draws a resemblance to the title of the aforementioned Christine Simon novel as he told me about one of his earliest and proudest actions when working for TDC, he explained:

“One of the very first things I did as a member of Thanet District Council was to put the notice in motion to start the renewal of coastal protection from Minnis Bay to Epple. We were losing 3ft of grass a year from the cliff top by erosion so this was an extremely beneficial act and probably my most major during my time at Thanet Council.”

Perhaps, you could argue that Neville did help pull his village from the sea!

 

Because of Neville’s experience in local government, he was invited to join the Parish Council 6 years ago, and shortly after joining, was given the role of Birchington Parish Council Chairman. It has been an impactful 6 years as Neville not only looks back with fondness but also looks forward with anticipation, he concludes:

“During my time as Birchington Parish Council Chairman, I have seen systems and processes improve significantly. We have been able to take over assets from TDC including the Seashelters through a community asset transfer and I am personally delighted that the seashelter group has done a fantastic job, restoring and renewing 8 shelters.

“There is a slight worry, with the housing development potentially taking place within the next 20 years, that the population of Birchington will increase by 25% or thereabouts. My great concern there is that the social services, medical services and education needs to keep pace with the population increase. That is the biggest concern I have for the Parish as it will require closer co-operations with the district, county council and government.

“In regards to future goals, we will continue to try and get better parking which is something we are always looking to do. Currently, we have taken over Birchington Recreation Ground which was donated to the village in 1926 and we are making arrangements for improving the use of the ground. It used to be fantastically used for football and other sports but all that died away when the decision was made that all football will be played on Jackey Bakers.

“I’m really pleased that it is coming back to life and that we have got it as we are hoping to make progress and be able to make the ground much better for our residents, both young and old. If in 5 years’ time, we can get the recreation ground back to full use I think it will all be worthwhile.

“The Parish Council is about the community and we have an obligation to make Birchington the best place it can be and we will always strive to do our best.”

 

I think we can all agree that Birchington Parish Council Chairman Neville Hudson has always given his best to the village and that Birchington is extremely lucky to have him. Thank you for all that you do Neville and many happy returns.

Find out more about Birchington Parish Council via their website.

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