Sunday 31 August 2008

Boundary Committee - aka The Stupid Idea Club

Felixstowe Beach huts - soon to be our responsibility?? Let's hope not!

Boundary Committee - aka The Stupid Idea Club, well that is what most of the population of Ipswich thinks! As most of the readers of this blog will know, Ipswich was after unitary status, we even had cross party support, the trouble was the Tories on the Suffolk County Council wanted a unitary Suffolk. The government were not sure that the figures added up so handed it over to the Boundary Committee.

Then we had the Stupid Idea Club- not a unitary Ipswich or even a unitary Suffolk, instead we get North Haven Unitary. where is that you may ask? Well it is Ipswich plus Felixstowe, the Shotley peninsular and the surrounding rural areas. Now no one had thought of that as a good idea (though the Lib Dems now think it is a great plan!)

I can see that Unitary Ipswich may need to be slightly bigger than the present borough, but how can the committee put us with Felixstowe and leave out Westerfield village (which used to be part of the borough)

The government could put a stop to this and you can play your part by looking at the boundary committee website and letting them know your views: this is the link to their site: http://www.boundarycommittee.org.uk/.

We do not have much in common with Felixstowe, actually with the state of the roads in Ipswich (partly due to the lack of funding as we do not have a unitary Ipswich)we have more in common with Sarajevo or Banja Luka than Felixstowe or Hadleigh.

Sunday 24 August 2008

And the Tories said the Ipswich bus service was safe!


Tory election leaflets have accused myself and my Ipswich Labour colleagues of scaremongering- to quote their leaflet - "Not for the first time in Rushmere, Labour has tried to alarm residents by scaremongering, this time about local bus services to Rushmere."


Well from the 28th September, the number 11 bus service to Rushmere is being reduced- from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes during the working week and more worrying for me as a parent- to just one service an hour on evenings and Sundays.


So only two years after the horrific murders in Ipswich, this Tory/Lib dem council want to cut bus services in the evenings, so youngsters have a choice of an expensive taxi, an hour wait for a bus or more alarming they may decide to walk home.

So much for the "Green" Mr Cameron! More cars on the roads, reduced bus service. the Tories have someone to blame (as well as themselves) the Tory run County council, who have taken away the Park and Ride contract from Ipswich Buses.

So, remember do not believe everything (or anything) in a Tory election leaflet!