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Ian
Peddlesden is prominent in the town both as a local politician and as a
Christian. He has been a Conservative councillor for North Somerset for
the past six years and last May ended a year's term as the Council's
chairman.
‘My
main politics is Christianity and my secondary politics is national
politics. I am a middle of the road politician.'
Ian
is a Man of Kent who likes to tell people that he went to school 22 miles
outside Calais. He spent his childhood and early youth in Dover. Given
his early background it might seem surprising that he is a Conservative
councillor.
‘We
lived in a private rented terraced house until 1960. The house had only
gas lighting in two floors, no electricity, no means of heating water
except on the stove. We had two cottage baths that were kept in the back
yard. And an outside loo.'
When
he left school he spent six years in the Army. He joined the Royal Army
Medical Corp, eventually becoming a dental hygienist and tutor at
Aldershot. It was there he met and married Pauline who was in the Queen
Alexander Royal Army Nursing Corp.
Church life has always been important to Ian with particular benefits
coming during his time in the Army. Occasionally this meant being posted
to a different part of the country.
`In
the few times we were posted somewhere strange the first place that we
ever went to was the church. It’s the place where people always want you,
particularly when you are young. Some things never change.'
Because Weston was Pauline's home town they came back here to get married
and as Methodists they chose Victoria Methodist Church for the ceremony.
Following on from that, when they finally left the services they moved
to Weston and Victoria has been their church ever since.
`When my six years in the services was coming to an end I could have
signed on again but decided to come out. It was a choice of going to
Kent or coming here. Pauline went to school here, its
her town. So we came back to Weston in 1969.'
Back
in civvies Ian began a middle management career with Unilever. He stayed
with them until, with Unilever's amalgamation of two companies and the
removal of a layer of management, he was able negotiate early retirement.
In preparation for this he made moves to enter local politics as a
councillor.
`Two
years before I left Unilever I stood in a local council election, and won
my seat for Hutton and Locking. It is amazing on this winding road of life
how suddenly you can take the right fork which carries you on.'
It
was largely thanks to wise counsel by leaders at Victoria Methodist Church
that Ian started on this path that eventually led him into local politics.
It is a path that had taken him into many fields of service both in church
life and in the secular world, amongst volunteers and professional alike.
`Outreach was the in-thing at churches 25 years ago. The suggestion was
made that perhaps I should do something more within the community.'
His
journey began with the committee of the town's Free Church Federal Council
which meant he went automatically onto the local Council of Churches as it
was back then, eventually becoming president. This in turn opened the
way for Free Church representation on numerous local government
committees, most notably those dealing with education and local schools.
`Its
a matter of keeping the links all the time. You have to encourage people
to come and do these volunteer jobs because the church has to be seen
working outside its four walls.’
As
someone who knows his way around all kinds of organisations and their
committees, both voluntary and professional, Ian has followed closely the
changes that have taken place within the WSM Council of Churches, as it
was, and the Churches Together, as it now is.
Mostly there has been progress, he says, but he does warn against its
affairs becoming too informal. `When it was a Council of Churches you
could not take any of the senior positions unless you wore a clerical
collar. So it has moved forward in that sense. But in the past we have
always had fairly lengthy discussions in our meetings. There has to be
time for business as well as for worship.'
He
is also keen to see full involvement by all churches in the regular
meetings so that the views of people who, like him, are what he calls more
traditional can be expressed.
`Churches Together is meant to involve all the Christian churches in the
town and the last thing that is wanted is for them to be shut out
unknowingly. Perhaps the fault is that they do not have the strength of
leadership or members to carry forward what they want to do.'
Having said that he is clearly encouraged by what he sees, particularly
the opening of new churches on the edges of the town, and is happy to
acknowledge that `the growth of the church in Weston in general and not
just in fabric is very healthy. And long may it continue.'
Brian Kellock. |
