The Board – One Haverhill Partnership

ONE Haverhill Partnership board members

ONE Haverhill aims to provide a public forum for local people to express their views, remove barriers to groups and organisations working together in the town, and promote Haverhill as a good place to live and work. A public forum is held twice a year in the town to discuss key issues in Haverhill. Members of the board include all three tiers of local government, the business sector, education, police, health, the voluntary sector, Havebury Housing, Abbeycroft Leisure and the faith community with one aim – improving the quality of life for people in Haverhill.

Andy Hunter - Chairman of ONE Haverhill Partnership

Represents: Unity Schools Partnership

About: Andy has been Headteacher at Samuel Ward Academy (a member of the Unity Schools Partnership) since January 2019. Andy has worked in education for more than 20 years and was previously Vice-Principal at Cromwell Community College in Chatteris.

David Ruddy - Vice Chair of ONE Haverhill Partnership Board

Represents: West Suffolk College

About: David worked in the motor industry for over 35 years, starting as an apprentice mechanical engineer and then holding various other roles culminating in several senior executive positions. David has worked in the Further Education sector for 12 years and was appointed as the Executive Director of Adult Education and Community Learning at West College five years ago where his prime role is to work with a variety of stakeholders, partners and employers to plan, develop and provide the strategic overview for various upskilling and retraining programmes throughout the communities, which the College serves. West Suffolk College has offered Adult and Community Education learning in and around Haverhill since 1996. Responding to local demand the College has relocated its Learning Centre to a much larger facility at the old Parkway Middle School in Park Road where it is working in association with the Unity Schools Partnership.

Alex Till - Vice Chair of ONE Haverhill Partnership Board

Represents: MENTA

About: Born in Leicester, Alex Till initially worked with SMEs at the Port of Felixstowe developing the purchase and supplier chains within Europe. Alex is passionate about the progression of young people and is a Visiting Fellow at UCS’s School of Business and continues to volunteer for the Princes Trust, a role he has undertaken for the past 17 years, representing Suffolk and Norfolk at the Princes Trust Regional Council. Alex was appointed Chief Executive of MENTA, the Suffolk enterprise agency five years ago. In that time, his focus has been supporting existing, small businesses and providing inspiration and information for start-ups, championing SME growth and economic development. As a team MENTA has been nationally recognised for its outstanding work and was the winner of the National Enterprise Network, ‘Enterprise Agency of the Year Award 2016’.

Lizzie Cocker

Represents: West Suffolk Council

About: Lizzi is a Family and Communities Officer for West Suffolk Council and locality officer for Haverhill. She has a specialism in Arts and Heritage and before working for Forest Heath District Council was a stage and production manager in London.

Andy Cuthbertson

Represents: Suffolk County Council

About: Andy is Communities and VCS Lead (People Services) at Suffolk County Council.

John Mayhew

Represents: Suffolk Chamber Of Commerce

About: John founded h.e.t. software in Haverhill in 1993 and, as Executive Chairman, grew it to a major software provider to the social care sector in the UK and Australia. Since 2012, and as Chairman, he backed Fiscale – a start-up professional practice offering specialist Research and Development tax credit advice to businesses on a no-win-no fee basis. John was a director of the Castle Partnership Academy Trust for three years and became vice-chair, providing advice on a review of governance and a wide range of commercial issues for the Trust. He is also currently a board member of West Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, part of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce. He has been a board member of ONE Haverhill Partnership since its formation in 2012 and was elected chairman in September 2016.

Henry Wilson MBE

Represents: The Faith community

About: Henry is a native of Haverhill having grown up in town and attended Place Farm, Parkway and Castle Manor schools. He is probably best known for being a local photographer, first with the Haverhill Echo then as a freelancer. Henry officially ‘retired’ as a professional photographer in 2011 and now works full time as the Chief Executive for REACH Community Projects, a charitable organisation which seeks to help relieve poverty in and around Haverhill through projects such as Haverhill Foodbank, Furniture Bank, Christians Against Poverty and the Resource Centre. Henry is married to Angela and they have two grown up children. He is also a former Vice-Chairman of ONE Haverhill Partnership, part of the leadership team of River of Life Community Church, Community Governor at Clements School and a member of the Children’s Centre Advisory Board.

Inspector Ben Hollands

Represents: Suffolk Police

About: Inspector Ben Hollands is the Local Policing Commander for Haverhill and Sudbury

David Roach

Represents: Suffolk County Council

About: David is the Suffolk County Council councillor representative on the board. He served as the town’s mayor for two years.
David’s passion is to ensure Haverhill has a voice at all levels of local government and the wider public sector domain.

Ian Gallin

Represents: West Suffolk Council

About: Ian Gallin is Chief Executive of West Suffolk Council. He has a first Degree in Economic Development and Planning and an MSc in Policy Studies. He has developed and led successful transformation programmes based on his change management ethos of ‘doing things differently’, and ‘getting the job done’. His approach focuses on the needs of communities and customers, not council processes.

David Smith

Represents: Haverhill Town Council

About: David is currently Mayor of Haverhill for the 2023-24 adminstrative year.

Patrick Hanlon

Represents: West Suffolk Council

About: Pat has lived in Haverhill for the last 41 years. He has been a Councillor on Haverhill Town Council for the East Ward since 1998, but with a four-year gap, and Chair of the Planning Committee. He says it has been an honour to represent the people of Haverhill and for them to enjoy the council’s free entertainment. He founded the Haverhill Autism Support Group in 2009 and is also a Community Governor of the Churchill Special Free School and a committee member of Happy Faces Preschool.

John Burns

Represents: Haverhill Town Council

About: John has lived in Haverhill since 1988. At a young age he retired in 2013, having worked 38 years firstly as a navigating officer on ocean-going tankers before coming ashore working in the personnel and vessel operations arena for the same company. Since ‘retiring’, he has spent a great deal of his time and energy trying to ensure the people of Haverhill have a representative voice in important matters – working hard lobbying the various councils to take notice. In 2019, he was re-elected to both Haverhill Town Council and West Suffolk District Council having spent a year as a Suffolk county councillor in 2016/7. He has a strong social media presence and is often seen freely filming council meetings and local events for wide online circulation. John was named Mayor of Haverhill in May 2019 and spent two years in the prestigious role.

Bruce Davidson

Represents: Haverhill Town Council

About: Bruce is a Councillor on Haverhill Town Council and served as Mayor during the 2022-2023 administration year.

Colin Poole

Represents: Haverhill Town Council

About: Colin is the Haverhill Town Clerk, based at the Arts Centre. As Town Clerk he is the principal officer of the Town Council advising elected members on legal, financial and procedural matters. Before working in Haverhill he was at Exmouth Town Council in Devon where he built partnerships involving community groups, businesses and other local authorities. His background is in community leadership, as a Parish Councillor for 10 years and as Chief Executive of a large voluntary sector organisation. Before moving to Suffolk 20 years ago, Colin worked at Watford CVS assisting start-up voluntary and charity groups and delivering training in charity management for the Directory of Social Change. He has a post-graduate diploma in voluntary sector management from the Cass Business School.

Sarah Hedges

Represents: West Suffolk Community and Integrated Services

About: Sarah is the Integrated Transformation Lead at West Suffolk Community and Integrated Services.

Warren Smyth

Represents: Abbeycroft Leisure

About: Warren is the Chief Executive of Abbeycroft Leisure, a not-for-profit company and registered charity focused on creating healthy, active communities. He has over 25 years experience of working in the sport and physical activity sector. Warren overseas the management of a diverse portfolio of facilities and services including traditional leisure centres, community use facilities, a health and wellbeing facility and corporate health and fitness provision , alongside an extensive Active Communities team and an outdoor pursuits service. Abbeycroft manages 19 facilities in 13 different communities and delivers a wide range of programmes and initiatives, generating in excess of £6 million of social value to the community each year.

Andrew Smith

Represents: Havebury Housing

About: Andrew is Chief Executive of Havebury Housing. Andrew has worked in the housing sector for more than 26 years. He began his career as an architect working in London. He moved to Circle 33 Housing Trust in the early 1990s. From there, he took on many high profile roles, including Director of Property Services. Andrew was also the Executive Lead for Circle 33’s expansion into Cambridgeshire. Andrew became the Operations Director in 2000 for Oxford Citizens Housing Association. This later joined forces with Westlea Housing Association in 2008 and Oxbode Housing Association in 2012, becoming the GreenSquare Group.

Adelle Stopher

Represents: Public Health, Suffolk County Council

About: Adelle is the Place Programme Lead for West Suffolk.

Donna Higgins

Represents: West Suffolk Council

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Jacqui Singleton

Represents: Samuel Ward Academy

About: Jacqui is Work Related Learning Coordinator at Samuel Ward Academy

Amanda Williams

Represents: National Literary Trust

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Daniel Pilley

Represents: Haverhill Chamber of Commerce

About: Originally from London, Dan moved to Haverhill in 1995. He worked at management level in the retail sector for a number of high profile businesses before opening retail shops in the town. He then set about building a large property portfolio, which led to opening the award-winning CXG Lettings in 2007. Nine years later, he opened Nine Jars Hotel, restaurant and cocktail bar.
Dan is also a board member of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce and Heart of Haverhill, taking a key role in the future planning and strategy of Haverhill town centre.

Rev'd Max Drinkwater

Represents: The Faith Sector.

About: Priest-in-charge, Haverhill and Withersfield

Paul West

Represents: Suffolk County Council.

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Helen Cullop

Represents: Community Action Suffolk.

About: Helen is Community Development Worker for Community Action Suffolk as well as representing Haverhill South People’s Forum.

Jo Albini

Represents: Citizens Advice West Suffolk

About: Jo is Business Development Manager at Citizens Advice West Suffolk