‘I want a better community’ - Meet the woman whose efforts make a Suffolk village tick

Tiffany Pollock, a local hero who works tirelessly for her community Picture: CHARLOTTE BOND (Image: Charlotte Bond)

Mrs Pollock, who lives in Tunstall, holds down a large number of paid and voluntary roles in the local area to help keep her community going.

Her day job is at Orford School and working for Bawdsey Parish council and her voluntary roles “slot in wherever they can.”

She is the founder of Tunstall Netball Team, set up the Tunstall and Blaxhall Neighbourhood Scheme and is secretary for both Tunstall Community Hall and St Michaels and All Angels Church.

One of the first of these voluntary roles was founding the netball team, which launched last summer.

“I joined the committee on the village hall,” said Mrs Pollock.

“One night we had a meeting. I sat back and listened to them and said ‘can we have a netball team’.

“They were completely gobsmacked.”

The committee backed Mrs Pollock and she set about liaising with sporting associations like Sports England and England Netball to start up the team.

The creation of the club helped her to secure thousands of pounds of funding for a multi use games area for Tunstall.

The meeting with committee also led to Mrs Pollock becoming editor of the village newsletter.

But how did she end up with so many different roles?

“I just can’t say no,” she jokes.

“People have got to know me throughout the community.

“They tend to think ‘yeah she is capable, so we’ll just ask her’.”

She isn’t quite sure how she balances it all.

“You have to completely change your mindset from one role to the next,” she said.

“Working with children at a primary school is far different to then going off to talk in a parish council meeting.

“I manage to juggle it as best I can.”

While she makes it sound simple, there is a deeper motivation driving her efforts.

“I want a better community,” she said.

“I want it to grow and be as good and as kind as it can be for my little one to grow up in.”

She has always lived locally, having grown up in Alderton and attended Bawdsey Primary School.

“I look to the future and I’d hate for children to grow up in a community in which they are not thought about or there’s nothing going on for them,” she said.

“I want the community to be a place where they want to be.

“With the pandemic especially it is really important that we look out for everybody.”

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As well as helping her community Mrs Pollock has also been inspired by it.

She says she owes a lot to Judi Hallett, the clerk for Hollesley and Ufford Parish Councils.

“She’s been a bit of a role model to me and probably encouraged me to think that I am able to do things,” she said.

“Judi knows her stuff and she put her faith in me and made me realise that I was capable of doing this.

“If she hadn’t had put me in the right meetings at the right time and invited me along to things some of the stuff would have probably never have come about.”

From all the roles she has, however, there is one she values above all the others.

“My number one role is as a mum to my three-year-old though; he is my world,” she said.

“I just think that if we can all chip in and do a little bit, it can make the world a better place.”

As she looks towards the future, it seems that Mrs Pollock’s schedule might get even more hectic as she’s already been asked to take on even more responsibilities in her local community.

“I’ve been asked to possibly put myself forward to be a governor at Orford Primary School,” said Mrs Pollock.

“I’ve only worked there for a month and they’ve already pounced on me.

“I’m also doing a Christmas fundraising event across the villages which I will be starting work on that in the next week or so.”

Do you know a community hero? Nominate them here

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