It is too easy to constantly look backwards to "the good old days". The fact that in many respects they were good times only adds to that temptation. But it is to be resisted if nostalgia crowds out the many modern changes for the good. Indeed, part of the dilemma is that we cannot have it both ways. For example, one cannot have ever wider car ownership without more pollution and a new lifestyle which takes people away from the town for work and recreation, thus tending to reduce their identification with and contribution to it. One usually cannot have the cheapness and vast range of goods in supermarkets without gradually killing off "owner occupied" local shops and with that the colour, character, individuality and local commitment that goes with the independent shopkeeper.

But part of the broad assessment of where Britain – not just Sudbury – is going is to face up to the less obvious damage caused by big business and big government alongside their undoubted achievements.

Above all we need a debate about the values we want to live by, rather than succumbing with scarcely a whimper to the trends imposed on us – fundamental materialism, insatiable acquisitiveness, enveloping self-centredness, de-humanising systems and the ghastly celebrity culture.

However, I maintain that one cannot begin to understand the present, let alone the future, unless one understands and draws on one's history – we have traditionally been good at that.

What's this got to do with Sudbury? Everything say I. One of the things I value from the story of this remarkable town is its independent, often nonconformist, spirit. It is not by chance that we are the oldest continuous weaving town in Britain, or that for a millennia we held onto our self-government until we lost our Borough status in 1974, or that our incomparable water meadows have been in public ownership for 1,000 years, or that over generations so many of us choose to stay living here, or gratefully return or come here. Nor is it an accident that Thomas Gainsborough possessed a singularly idiosyncratic mind and eye, or that this is still a town of varied religious vitality, or that the Market Hill has resisted recent vandalism (take a bow Sudbury Society!) And in modern times the establishment of The Quay Theatre and Gainsborough's House exemplify Sudbury's civic activism.

But what of our 'yoof', I hear some say. Of course we could do with less anti-social behaviour, and we must all work on that. But it's not typical, and am I alone in being grateful to live in a town of all types, ages, backgrounds and talents? I am also thankful for our schools and humming business and industrial base, full of skills, loyalty and ingenuity. I love going up to town on market days, seeing the world and his wife in all their variegated fascination. I wish there were more local shops, but that is partly down to us.

Nothing demonstrated the rich tapestry of our community more than Sudbury on Show last year and two years before that (it will be on again next year.) We discovered over 270 voluntary organisations in Sudbury and Cornard, of which around 150 took stalls in St Peter's and the town hall. What an eye-opener. Banish doom!

Of course, we have other challenges – roads, hospital, over-development, ugliness, noise and so on. But, like our forebears, we must each confront them as best as we can, not leaving it for someone else. There is still nowhere I would rather live.