Chatteris town councillors agree ‘Bill’s Hill’ memorial to former mayor Bill Haggata

A former town mayor who has recently died is to have a special memorial – ‘Bill’s Hill’.

Councillors discussed a memorial for Bill Haggata who sadly died last month.

Bill served as Mayor of Chatteris for the first time in 2016 – two years after he was co-opted onto the council – with his wife Ruth serving alongside him as mayoress – he went on to serve a further two terms in the role.

He served as a trustee of Chatteris Museum and was also a member of the Chatteris Archive Team.

Bill was instrumental in driving forward the Little Acre Fen project with his then-fellow councillors Julie Smith and James Carney.

So when councillors discussed a suitable memorial at their meeting on last night town clerk Jo Melton suggested something at the Pocket Park would be appropriate.

Members agreed it would be a great idea because of Bill’s enthusiasm for the park.

Mrs Melton explained: “When we designing the park Bill was very keen to have something the children could roll down and wanted a bund building, and he kept wanting it higher and higher – I was worried it would collapse, but he just kept saying ‘it won’t’ and he was right.”

It was suggested that a plaque at the top of the bund would be perfect, and then it was suggested that it could actually refer to the bund as ‘Bill’s Hill’ and contain other relevant information about Bill’s service to the town.

There was also a suggestion to look into the possibility of including a slide that could be built into the bund and it was agreed to do that as part of the memorial.