Transforming Suffolk ?

Michael Blakenham — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:35:00 GMT

ECOLOGY: the relationship of plants, animals and people to each other and to their surroundings. ( Longmans Contempory English Dictionary.)

Suffolk is currently one of the best places in which to live. The recent Halifax survey concluded that the Mid-Suffolk area came top of the list in the whole of the U.K. with St. Edmundsbury coming eighth and Babergh thirteenth. Students exam results, health and longevity were all in the top quartile, and Suffolk managed on average to have two hours more sunshine than other rural counties! We have exceptional scenery, historic buildings, market towns, nature reserves, estuaries and coastline as well as a fast developing local economy.

There are of course threats on the horizon from increasingly congested roads, noise and air pollution and overdevelopment. There are also opportunities for more job creation and sustainable development. The essential task is to get the balance right. With the economy collapsing around our ears we need to work in every way possible to create long term sustainable and preferably environmentally friendly jobs.

Suffolk Together strongly supports the plans of the Suffolk Strategic Partnership for higher level skills and job training (click here for ‘Transforming Suffolk ‘ document) for high skilled and higher jobs is what the region needs. There are also more opportunities to take advantage of Suffolk special attributes. We believe that much more can be made of eco-tourism in the county. We support Natural England’s efforts to re-introduce the Sea Eagle to its former range in East Anglia. This has done wonders for eco-tourism on the West Coast of Scotland and is the sort of initiative that we should be pursuing.

We have not supported the Snoasis leisure project, not just because of the developer’s poor financial record, but because for the reasons put forward by the Community Alliance at the Public Inquiry, we don’t believe it will be economically viable and the cost of taking down the ski-slope (£30 million pounds ten years ago for a similar ski-slope outside Tokyo) would fall on the community. It also for obvious reasons would be environmentally damaging.

We need a larger number of affordable homes (see housing button) and ecologically sound new –build housing and will work at all levels to help make this happen. All parties are aware of the need for better insulation in homes, but we need to press harder for ground source heat pumps and other alternative energy-saving technologies which will help save the planet as well as the pocket.

What do you think - reply on this blog and let m e know?

Soapbox: Suffolk eco-tourism issues

Transforming Suffolk ?