You might think a Royal Navy officer planning a major NATO exercise involving nearly 80 warships to avert a war in the Balkans would find leading a small town council would be something of doddle by comparison.

For Frank Minns, the recently elected Hadleigh Town Mayor, the challenge is equally exciting and formidable in its own way.

Frank is very clear about his own vision as mayor for the town, which includes making the town somewhere young people have so much to do they want to stay and love it in the same way many other townsfolk fo.

He is also determined to make sure council meetings no longer rival Eastenders in terms of entertainment by cutting, if not completely ending the bickering and bad tempered clashes.

His short term aims involve helping businesses get back on their feet post-pandemic and helping to steer the town's long term prosperity in partnership with other parties as part of the Hadleigh Vision.

With 19 years as an officer in the Royal Navy, Frank feels he is equipped to deal with the salvo of issues he knows will come his way, and his CV is pretty impressive and fairly unique in Hadleigh's history.

Originally from south Essex, Frank joined the Royal Navy in September 1982 at Dartmouth as a supply and secretariat officer.

After working as a staff officer to a captain of frigate squadron and as a Flag Lieutenant, wearing all the scrambled egg threads, to an admiral, Frank made the usual move to become an anti-submarine warfare officer, the first from the branch to successfully transfer.

As part of his training for that role the young officer had the honour of being the furthest man forward on the HMS Sirius forecastle so stood between the eyes of the ship (the anchor portholes)into Sydney Harbour for the Australian bi-centennial in 1988.

"As Sirius was named after the first ship to take the new colonists to Australia, we were lionised," recalled Frank. "Apart from the Australian flagship I was the first person through which was absolutely marvellous. Even though we had a carrier with us, due to our name, we were seen as far more important."

Stints on board HMS Hermoine and HMS Beaver followed and then he landed what he describes as 'the best job I have had'.

Working for Admiral Alan West, who went on to become the first sea lord then a minister in the Labour government, Frank was heavily involved in ensuring the arms embargo to the Balkans was enforced. This included being at the sharp end of a huge Allied exercise with the object of the mission was to blockade the major ports on the Iberian peninsula, using nearly 80 submarines, and warships of various sizes sent by NATO alliance.

Frank said: "We all went into one room, and an American officer said to me 'alright Frank - what are you going to do with them' and I had the biggest toy set in the world. To do that as a Lieutenant-Commander (equivalent to Major in the army) was unbelievably rewarding."

Political frustration surfaced when he was with Ministry of Defence working on a huge sonar project and was horrified when he realised the mandarins in the MoD didn't know what a sonar was. Fortunately he still managed to help get it through and the system is still operation on Type-23 frigates.

However, not enough experience on a ships bridge meant he was never going to command his own ship so resigned his commission.

A spell with a management consultancy for a year was not for Frank he hated its and it made him ill, so he went into partnership with now husband Colin to set up a gardening business in London.

They lived in Greenwich, struggled through the banking crash in 2008 but eventually got fed up with dirt, noise and traffic in London and it just ground them down, so moving to beautiful Hadleigh was an easy decision once they found the right property.

"We were just so glad to get out of London," said Frank. "We have been in Hadleigh five and half years and have been back just three times and do not miss it at all.

"Hadleigh is a marvellous town to live. We have lovely house, with a big garden, which was a God send during lockdown."

Not one for sitting around after the house and garden were sorted, Frank through himself into the local community and volunteered in the Thift Shop, then joined the community gardens committee, while a group, with a project tracing history of the town's houses has been put on the back burner due to lock down

Various issues drew him into town politics and after narrowly missing out as an independent in the May 2019 elections, stood as part of Hadleigh Together after seeing them in action, in a by-election.

"They have asked me to and I saw enough to realise it is not a political group, more a collection of independents working together.

"We had just got the new council up and running and committee sorted and looked to be getting somewhere when the virus hit."

Covid-19 was areal worry for Frank and his family. He contracted with autoimmune hepatitis, where his liver was eating away in his body and he became very ill., Meanwhile, his mother who lives in Benton Street and his husband Colin were shielding as vulnerable

The council relied on Andy McMillan the town centre manager to keep things ticking over using limited delegated limited powers. As things started getting back to some sort of normality Frank recovered, and as chairman of Town Matters committee was pivotal in dealing with the fall out the barriers in the High Street placed by Suffolk County Council.

As part of the fall out the then mayor Helen Allen resigned and on Thursday, September 17, Frank volunteered his services and was elected into the position.

Frank said: "There is not much ceremonial stuff going on, but we are looking to appoint a new town clerk and then a town centre manager.

"As I'm available during the day I can help in sorting the office out and helping them."

While it is not as exciting as stopping a war in the Balkans, it is still a challenge but he feels he has the experience to deal with it.

"It is right up my street," said the former RN Commander. "I have a lot of experience in chairing meetings in the Royal Navy and try not to be too formal as I believe a more collegiate approach works better. We all pretty much want to same thing.

"I'm looking for more calm in meetings, after all we are the elected leaders and if people see us shouting and arguing it does not set a good example,

"During the worst of the virus the kindness shown by people in Hadleigh was just astonishing. People were working endless hours to help people in so many ways.

"Sadly as the restrictions eased, it seems due bad temper return, which was such a same.

"I would like to get that kind feeling back somehow."

With resignations coming over the past nine months, there are currently 10 councillors and due to the pandemic, no elections until next May, when five more will be elected, Frank is keen to get on with dealing with all the issues and explained his vision to pull everyone together.

Mayor Minns said: "I would like to work on keeping people calm and still have a good discussion. Every time we can do that without people losing their temper, then it makes the next meeting easier and perhaps shorter.

"We can still get things decided and properly debated without the manner of the debate being so unappealing. We need to look like grown ups, talking about grown up things for the benefit of our town.

"While we can't always deal with the big things, we can deal with things that matter to the people and do that properly and thoroughly.

"We are not there to makes things more entertaining than Eastenders."

Other main issues he is keen to address include what happens in the short term: He said: "If and when this pandemic eases we need to be there to help businesses get back on their feet as soon and as easily as possible.

Longer term he sees the Hadleigh Vision as key factor and admitted: This could include a one way system or pedestrianisation but everyone will have their say.

"This gives us time and will involve the other levels of government."

Another sore point has been the ongoing cemetery issue and Frank wants everyone to move on from the bad blood that caused.

He said: "No matter what we think we have that and now it is about getting on with it and not looking back and pointing fingers."

The sports ground and the rugby club pitches are also high on his agenda but there is something that trumps all.

"For me, the single most important thing is to make this a town young people want to live in, said Frank "There is not much for them here.

"The bus service in the evening is barely present. People may go to Ipswich, or Sudbury or Colchester, but how do they get back? It is not cheap.

"A lot is made of young people behaving badly in Hadleigh but my feeling is not that some behave badly because they are bored or frustrated, but we should be focusing on the fact that there is not enough here for anyone. Looking after young people and giving them reasons to want to stay here is not about bad behaviour but the fact is they have every right to have facilities in this town as people of my age do.

"They should have a stake in what we do in this town and want to stay here.

"Look what they have done with the Porch Project, it is fantastic but that is not going to satisfy the need of everyone as Hadleigh High School for example."

He has also called for a Sixth Form and believes the amount of pupils in the town and surrounding villages justifies Hadleigh having its own, especially with more development going ahead and in the pipeline.

"We have three primary schools in the town alone. It seems wrong to me that the network of friends get broken up because they have to go here, there and everywhere."

There is undoubtedly a lot to do but with a cool head on the bridge, fire in the engine room and lots of willing manpower, Mayor Frank Minns is confident he can steer Hadleigh through these troubled waters and secure a happy future for the town.