Thursday 26 February 2009

Sudbury traffic madness


The traffic madness in Ballingdon must stop. The picture above could have been repeated 3 or 4 times while I stood there for 10minutes. Before the bollards we campaigned for were put here, these 2 lorries would have been up on the pavement to get past.
HGV's are ruining our historic core and the quality of life of residents. Never mind that this area is now an Air Quality Management Area. Come on Suffolk County Council, do something that helps the residents?
Bypass, downgrade the A131, stop the A131 being a primary lorry route, traffic lights, finalise the priority system, one way? We need a solution that reduces the problem and takes all residentrs into account.

Should North St be pedestrianised?


Many of you may have seen the experiment on pedestrianising North St on a Sunday. Did it work? Should it be permanent? Should it happen on more days? all of the time? Did traders benefit or were they worse off? Can we afford to lose those car spaces especially on Market days with none on the Market Hill already?

Please give your views and comment.

Babergh sets 2.9% council tax rise

Its good when you can write in a positive way about co-operation between political parties and the budget is one of them. A 2.9% increase which is below the CPI inflation rate and still puts in extra resources for the CAB, the sanctuary scheme (earlier post), affordable housing and free swimming has to be good. Some would have liked a 0% rate but the benefit of a 9 pence per week saving for a household set against the improvements to services that are needed in a recession made it a simple decision.
Though, there are some important questions raised here by the 0% promoters. Have we made the efficiencies we should have? Are we being prudent and careful? and will the recession be worse if the public sector starts cutting spending and laying people off? If councils start reducing orders then a negative multiplier effect is going to spiral.

New Siam Gardens


The renovation of Siam Gardens in the North Street car park should be something to celebrate. A novel idea to incorporate it as part of a trail around the town telling the history of industry that made the town famous. Yet it has been beset with problems all set around not listening to residents when they were consulted or listening then seemingly going back on their word. This is not a council but an unelected quango, who have managed to get quite considerable funds from Government for different projects BUT who are difficult to call to account unless you know one of them personally. And that is wrong.
Lets hope that the issues can be resolved before the opening on the 4th April as Siam Gardens needs the residents surrounding it for this scheme to truely work.

Sunday 22 February 2009

Food for thought

I attended a meal to raise money for the Babergh Domestic Violence and Abuse Forum the other day. Hearing Cathy Press speak on society's perceptions of abuse and how people often want to explain/rationalise why it happened and often look at what the victim may have done or how was the abuser provoked. It was extremely thought provoking.

It strengthened my belief on why it is so important that we do support Sanctuary schemes for victims in our Council budget. Something that nearly got cut out.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Students grade Sudbury

Here is a summary of when the Sudbury Liberal Democrats surveyed 111 13-16 year olds as part of Sudbury on Show at Sudbury Upper School on Thursday 12th and in St Peters Church on Saturday 14th Feb.

The results show that the young people completing the survey were regular users of a whole range of leisure facilities in the town. 75% used Belle Vue Park, 63% Kingfisher Leisure centre while Friars Meadow, Dual use sports centres (Sudbury & Cornard) and playing fields were all used by approximately 50%. A third used sports clubs while only 8% used the skate park and the BMX.

On their suggestions for extra leisure facilities they would like to see in Sudbury 57% made no suggestion while a quarter suggested a cinema would be the main improvement.

70% thought that Belle Vue Park had everything it required. The main suggestions for improvements were a football goal, play equipment for older teenagers and a better café.

On feeling safe when out in the town, 47% said yes, all of the time while 50% said yes but only during the day while a small 3% said none of the time.
The main fear was from the night time economy and of drunken adults coming out of and going from pubs. A fifth of all students wanted to see more police patrolling or the police being more visible in the town centre at night.

The top 3 issues (from a list of 12) were:

1st Public Transport mentioned by 40%
2nd Climate Change mentioned by 34%
Joint 3rd Education & Training/University fees and war & terrorism all mentioned by 28%

The full results of the survey have already been passed to Babergh District Council who have responsibility for leisure and community safety.

Sunday 15 February 2009

Sudbury on Show


The 14th Feb was "Sudbury on Show" in the Town Hall and St Peter's Church on the Market Hill. If you are not aware of the concept it is a chance for all community and voluntary organisations to promote their activities, to network and find new members. It is also a chance for everyone to just see the wide range of activities our community offers.
A smaller version is run at the 2 Upper schools for a morning the same week.
Everyone gets a stand and a directory of contact details is published and the event is done on a bi annual cycle run by the Town Council.
It was the brainchild of (Lord) Andrew Phillips and started in 2003 when I did my first Mayoral stint. It is superb that 6 years later we were onto the 4th event with over 100 stands.

I spent all day on the Lib Dem stand. We got an excellent response to our Poll on which site should be chosen for the Town's new health facility. Cynics in public bodies often treat consultation with contempt seeing it as a threat to their power or scared of public choices if they are given power to chose.

All I can say, is that the choice of site is difficult but the the 100+ residents who completed it took their time and we had some excellent discussions on the merits and disadvantages of a range of sites. And people appreciated the chance to have their voice. Lets be honest the PCT (Primary Care Trust) are not going to ask residents.
People see through consultation when it is a foregone conclusion but value the chance to influence a decision even if their own choice is not taken up.
People want to partake in local democracy but only if they feel they will be listened to, why bother if the decision makers have already given you the view theirminds are made up!???

The result: Church Field Road 51.5%, Walnuttree 41% and St Leonards 7.5%.

Finally there was an enormous relief that Babergh had rejected Belle Vue House and land next to the Park. Now what should happen there? Another post, another time.

Saturday 7 February 2009

Great Cornard Upper: 12 hour sports challenge 9pm to 9am!

Our school is raising money for an upgrade to the school climbing wall in memory of Paul Dainty the much loved and respected former Head of PE and science teacher who died in 2008. Paul brought climbing and many sports to so many students in his 30 years here.

So its 1am and I've now done Tchoukball, fitness suite, basketball and footie is to come (did 5 a side after school too!) Great atmosphere and loads of kids participating from badminton to basketball and trampolining to football.

Its times like this you realise the great colleagues you work with and the great young people who are having real fun for a good cause.

I wonder what 9am will feel like? want to watch England v Italy Saturday pm, will I have the stamina?

Suffolk County Council thinks Sproughton suitable for an incinerator (energy from waste)

Suffolk is running out of landfill, lanfill taxes are going up and more waste needs to be diverted from this stream. The real answer is recycling, waste minimisation and reuse but the more economic option for the Council seeems to be incineration. Incineration or energy from waste as they call it has a mixed and emotive record. Europe sees it as green, the UK greens and elsewhere see it as polluting. Technology has moved on but fine particulates are still emitted and resources that could be recycled are lost and ash still has to be landfilled.

Residents in Sproughton are quite rightly concerned about the close proximity to their village of this use due to potential emissions and traffic if the old sugar beet factory site was selected.
I know that Kathy Pollard is representing them well as their Lib Dem County Councillor. I just hope the Conservative administration listens carefully to residents issues and it selects wisely the site and the technology to be used.

Babergh looks at 2.9 to 3.5% council tax increase

I've sat on the Service and Financial Planning Group working on the budget, a group of Lib Dem, Conservative and Independent councillors with officers. Alot of hard work has been put in and some difficult decisions have been made and a recommendation of a 2.9% increase is on the table. Yet several proposals from O&S for further funding of the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Sanctuary scheme for domestic violence are worthy of reconsideration. In a recession evidence shows us that both these services will need more funding due to extra demand for their services.