Soapbox: Suffolk local government issues

Support in all four Divisions

peter welham — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:22:00 GMT

Although we didn’t capture any of the four Suffolk County Council seats we contested, the results from all four divisions were incredibly encouraging with more than 2,500 people voting for Suffolk Together candidates – turning their backs on the major political parties.

The largest gain for ST came in the Blackbourn division where Amber Newman polled 750 votes, with 21% of the votes, to come second to the long serving Conservative who dropped a massive 837 votes this time around compared to the 2005 elections. The Liberals trailed in third and Labour fourth.

Amber’s performance reflects great credit on her and her team who worked tirelessly to gain a major foothold in a traditional Conservative stronghold.

In the Gipping Valley, held by the Lib Dems for eight years Michael Blakenham polled 715 votes and captured 25% of the vote to come in third narrowly beaten by the Conservative whose vote more than halved to 739 from 1533 in 2005.

The Lib Dem winner saw his vote drop by a huge 778 as voters again expressed their disdain with national parties and politics. Labour trailed in a poor fourth..

In the large two - seat Whitehouse and Whitton ward Michael Hallatt faced a massive task against the established three main parties and totalled a credible 686 votes to gain an 8% share of the vote. The electorate moved massively against the sitting Labour councillors to return two Conservatives in a huge swing.

In Bosmere the sitting Lib Dem polled 332 votes less than in 2005 but still held the seat with our Stephen Wright avoiding last place - that fell to Labour with just 150 votes, less than half those polled by Stephen who, on 432 votes was narrowly behind the UKIP candidate in third place.

Lessons have been learned by Thursday and will stand us in good stead for 2011 when another election will be held if the Local Government Review goes through with new unitary authorities being created.

Lib Dems hot and bothered !

peter welham — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:11:00 GMT

It seems the Lib Dems are getting desperately hot under the collar and it’s not the weather that’s causing the problem !

In a third election leaflet John Field - in his own words “your dependable, honest and local councillor” (!!) – shows all the signs of a man under pressure with an unprecedented and totally untrue attack on Suffolk Together and our candidate Michael Blakenham.

Field, who has been on Suffolk County Council for eight years, though one has to scour the records to find anything of any note he has actually said in that time, labels us as a small group of landowners with our own wish list and no achievements. The latter point is untrue but unlike him we haven’t had representation at County Council level for eight years during which the Lib Dems have done their usual sitting on the fence act on many critical issues. At District level much has been achieved and reported to the local parish councils.

And as far as being landowners is concerned it shows, yet again, an alarming lack of knowledge for our membership covers a whole range of people including, a very small number of landowners, but with the vast majority of members being ordinary local people – and yes, Mr Field, we even have some who live in Council - owned property and mobile homes !

He further accuses us of being a one - issue party campaigning on Snoasis and nothing else. Clearly he hasn’t read this website or, indeed, our election material that (a) doesn’t campaign on Snoasis but (b) lists all our policies on the key issues.

It’s clear that the Lib Dems are rattled by what they are hearing on the doorsteps. Remember their MPs have been named in the national expenses scandal – avoid the party that tells lies – and vote for Suffolk Together on June 4^th.

Government by the people for the people

peter welham — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:08:00 GMT

The latest round of revelations about the sleazy MPs and their misuse of public funds is just, one suspects, the tip of the massive iceberg. Were it not for the media this unpalatable practice of well paid public officials further feathering their nests would have gone unnoticed save by those who have been signing the cheques or authorising bank transfers - thank God for the whistleblowers.

This scandal is yet another reason why Suffolk Together exists, to shine a light into those dark corners, to make public officials accountable, but above all to ensure that those democratically elected act in the best interests of those who put their crosses on the ballot paper. Government, be it a parish, town, county or national level must never lose sight that with the role comes not only the authority but also the responnsibility to act in the best interests of the electorate - government by the people for the people

News of a traffic survey

peter welham — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:15:00 GMT

Thanks to the efforts of our District Councillor Michael Blakenham it seems there is, at long last, to be movement on the problems facing Great Blakenham. Michael has got Mid Suffolk District Council to agree to talk to Suffolk County Council and the Highways Agency on the question of traffic. Does this finally mean that some joined up thinking will be used when assessing ongoing developments - we can hardly wait !!

What integrated planning

peter welham — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:49:00 GMT

The phrase integrated planning is a total contradiction in terms if recent local examples are anything to go by. All too frequently decisions, be they taken at District or County level, are taken in total isolation with no regard for the likely cumulative effect of, say, yet another development. This applies particularly to those areas where the infrastructure is already sorely stretched and under pressure.

Planners appear to operate in a vacuum taking only into account the application before them with no overview of just how this latest plan could impact on the area when taken in conjunction with other developments. In other words an application for yet another warehouse may, on the face of it, appear to be reasonable but taken as a whole with existing developments it might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The classic example is the relatively small village of Great Blakenham on the outskirts of Ipswich. Already approved there by the planners is the massive SnOasis development, a new railway station, a new housing development, a new primary school, a new waste and recycling centre, new shops and a police station, and a proposed new warehousing site, hotel and sports centre. All these developments will use as the main access road, the narrow two lane B1113. Madness or mismanagement ? Nowhere is there a joined up approach to the likely impact of all these developments on the infrastucture, no one has yet questioned what effect there will be on traffic flows or air pollution.

To exacerbate the situation Suffolk County Council has now decided that their preferred site for a £600 million incinerator is – yes, Great Blakenham using the same road !! Yet at this stage no traffic assessment has been carried out. No one knows if the local road network – including the A14 - can cope with the refuse trucks and attendant vehicles. How one can prefer a site without carrying our fundamental research like traffic flows is beyond me.

One thing’s certain though. If all the approved developments proceed then the Great Blakenham area will be a massive traffic hot spot and probably the most over - developed village in the whole of our county.