FENLAND District Council’s Golden Age team was hailed as “amazing” after a meeting with members of Suffolk County Council.

Suffolk county councillors Anne Gower and Mary Rudd and officer Clair Harvey visited Wisbech on a fact-finding mission to learn how the Golden Age operated.

The methods used by the council to help older people are set to spread further afield following the “inspirational” meeting.

Cllr Gower, an Age UK champion and chair of Haverhill Older People’s Forum, said: “It was an absolutely brilliant day – inspiring. They are an amazing team and you can’t help being drawn in by their commitment and enthusiasm. I take my hat off to them.

“What was really good was that they gave us some really down-to-earth, common sense advice, not a lot of high-falutin’ nonsense.

“We’re very grateful for the time they took to organise the meeting and it’s really nice that different authorities across the region can work together like this. They offered to be our ‘mentors’ and we will certainly take them up on that.”

Cll Gower said they would take back ideas about the Golden Age fairs and the surgeries to the Haverhill forum’s and share them at county level.

She and her colleagues met councillors Mac Cotterell, Bernard Keane, Ken Mayor, Trevor Quince and David Oliver and council officer Jean Moden.

Cllr Cotterell said: “It was a very enjoyable exchange. We were delighted to pass on our experiences and to hear about theirs. We can all learn from each other and we’re more than happy to help them in any way we can.”