News from Bridge Ward, Ipswich including the Hayes, Old Stoke, Prince of Wales Drive, Maidenhall Estate and Wherstead Road

I still can’t get comments up, so if you want to send any reaction to something I’ve said please email james@bridgeward.org.uk

This time on Wherstead Road:

Between 9pm on Wednesday 1st September & 11.10am on Thursday 2nd September a Jeep Grand Cherokee parked on Wherstead Road in Ipswich had a window smashed and two portable DVD players were stolen from inside.

Were you in the area between these times, did you see anyone acting suspiciously around the vehicle? If you have any information about this theft please contact Ipswich police on 01473 613500 quoting reference IW/10/3938

Or

Please use the following link to pass any useful information to Suffolk Police about this incident.

http://www.suffolk.police.uk/News+And+Appeals/Report+Information+To+The+Police/Tell+The+Police.htm

DO NOT USE THIS LINK IN AN EMERGENCY OR IN A SITUATION THAT REQUIRES AN IMMEDIATE POLICE RESPONSE WHEN YOU SHOULD RING 999.

Police Direct Team

The Evening Star now has a crime map of Ipswich, if you want to know whether there’s a spate of crime in your local area:

I like to look in my stats to see what people are interested about, so I was surprised to see the Google search for my name with Ipswich. Not another employer. So I then went to look at the IP address 91.109.140.140. They’d originally been searching for Public Impact, an outfit I’d been less than complimentary about in the past for their practice of siphoning off public money for Labour campaigns. They then looked at the about page, then looked for james bridge ward news, after that showing some interest in Chris Moles’ expenses. After that they did my name search and looked for pictures of me through Google.

Sorry Labour ladies, I’m happily married. You weird and deeply disturbing cyberstalkers.

The rise of Dame Bryony Rudkin goes further and faster. The so-right-wing-its-a-puzzle-why-they’re-still-in-Labour pressure group “Labour First” have put her on their slate for the National Policy Forum, at least according to Luke Akehurst, an arms trade lobbyist (and you can’t be more New Labour than a merchant of death).

Will the Campaign for Social Democracy, SDP, Manifesto Group, Tory Reform Group get the treasure of Bridge ward up to yet another place where she does not need to deal with our mundane worries? And what do the Balls backing Ipswich Labour Party think? Will we ever see those photos of her government sponsored trip around South Africa? And why on earth is Bridge Ward News the best source of gossip about the Ipswich Labour Party?

There will be more thrilling instalments as they happen.

Paul Geater spent his weekend covering David Miliband’s visit. He discusses which candidate is being supported. No real surprises apart from David Ellesmere “leaning” towards David Miliband. I suppose the odd looking kids have to stick together, although he did have some choice. Ellesmere, unlike his rather nice parents, exemplifies the “no one likes us” politics of Ipswich Labour that has lost them control of the council, so if Balls can’t attract him then who can he get? Sadly for the Tories Balls looks like he’s dead in the water (I spent some of the Maidenhall fun day trying to persuade Jim Powell of Ed Ball’s merits).

Otherwise its Sandy Martin supporting Ed Miliband, who’s appealing to the hopeless lefties and somehow attracted Sandy, and Adam Leeder … who cares? Already known people are Mama Rudkin (David M), Chris Mole (Balls) and John Cook (Balls – but not interviewed).

I usually ask questions that I know the answer to, but did Paul Geater cover David Cameron’s visit to the North Ipswich lot when he was the front runner for leadership? I genuinely don’t know, but if he found that uninteresting on a week day but Miliband interesting enough for a weekend, well…

EDIT: I’ve also got to point out that Ben Gummer is also endorsing David Miliband

This letter found its way to me.

The bottom line is that the meeting will be at the Gainsborough Labour Club, 394 Landseer Road, Ipswich, IP3 9LX on September 1st, from 4pm to 7pm.

Here’s a link to the map.

We’re writing to let you know about some work we are proposing to do at our Cliff Quay waste water treatment works in Ipswich. Our plans will not increase any odour that the site generates, and will increase its capacity.

Waste water to you – fertiliser to us!

You might wonder what happens to the water you flush down the toilet, empty out of the sink, or tip into the drain. But it’s at the point the waste leaves you that Anglian Water steps in. We treat the water and clean it up before it’s returned to the environment.

One of the by-products of this treatment process is a nutrient-rich soil improver that we provide to local farmers to use as fertiliser on their land. At Cliff Quay, we treat most of the waste water for this area, and produce approximately 48,000 tonnes of this soil improver each year.

But with proposed growth in the Ipswich area, we know we’ll need to handle more waste water, which will produce more of this fertiliser product. To do this we need to enhance the treatment process at Cliff Quay, and increase the capacity of the waste water treatment works.

We also plan to look at the possibility of further developing the existing commercial composting service at the site, in keeping with national plans for minimising waste.

Please come and see what we’re planning

Anglian Water intends to submit a full planning application to Suffolk County Council, but we’d like you to have the chance to see our proposed development before we submit plans for it.

We’d like to invite you to a public exhibition at
Gainsborough Labour Club, Ipswich on September 1st,
from 4pm to 7pm, so we can share our plans with you.

Any questions?

We know you may have questions about our plans. Here are some answers to the queries we’ve already received.

Will the new works cause an increase in smells from the site?
No. Overall, our proposal will not increase any odour from the site. And new installations will have required odour treatment mitigation equipment installed.

Will you be expanding the site?
No. All development will take place within the existing boundary of the works.

What material will you treat on site?
The site will treat all the waste water from your area, and will continue to treat liquid sludge from other works such as at Bury St Edmunds just as it does now.

Will the scheme have any impact on the environment?
We asked Suffolk County Council for their opinion on the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment, and they told us that our plans “would not produce any unusually complex or potentially hazardous environmental effects” and that “it would not be likely to have significant effects on the environment”.

What will the development look like?
The proposed layout and appearance of the development will be submitted in support of the planning application. But if you come along on September 1st, we will be able to share these plans with you.

What if you can’t make the open day?

If you can’t make it on September 1st, our planning application will be consulted on by Suffolk County Council, and you are welcome to get in touch with them to express your opinion. You’re also welcome to get in touch with me – my contact details are below.

We hope you can make it though, and look forward to meeting you. Don’t
forget – September 1st, between 4pm and 7pm.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Swan
Anglian Water Special Projects
sswan@anglianwater.co.uk

Public Meeting. Planning permission. Public nuisance. Cliff Quay. The memories are flooding back.

It’s today. Stoke High School. Starts at 11. Goes on to 4.

Just as a reminder, the Fun Day is at Stoke High School. It starts at 11 AM, and goes on to about 4 PM.

It should be great fun. Be there.

Unlike last year’s heritage day this year’s open day is not very well publicised. As I’ve been getting some searches on this I thought I’d put in some details for this year.

The Ipswich heritage day in 2010 will be, as usual, two days, Saturday 11th Septembter and Sunday 12th September. English heritage list the following attractions:

* Admiral’s House
* Arlingtons Brasserie (the original Ipswich museum, hence why Museum Street has no museum on it)
* Bethesda Baptist Chapel
* Broomhill Pool
* Christ Church, Tacket Street
* Freston Tower
* Holy Trinity Church, Bishops Hill / Back Hamlet
* Ipswich School – Exclusive school and Socialist blogger hangout
* Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House
* Pykenham’s Gatehouse
* Ipswich Institute Reading Room and Library
* Sproughton Tithe Barn (totally refurbished apparently)
* St Lawrence’s Church
* St Peter’s Church
* The Old Custom House
* Town Hall
* Waterfront Building, University Campus Suffolk
* Willis Building (surprisingly good if you haven’t seen it)

The opening times vary so please go to the English heritage website.

Earlier in the week I had a knock on my door from a rather charming person who explained that they were putting up windows at a near neighbour’s of mine in Belstead Avenue and would I be interested. The notepaper he gave me was from “L Joyce Ltd Windows & Doors”. No telephone number or email address (I’ve looked subsequently on Google and they are legitimate, but without much of a web presence, I guess they’re going to have a higher web presence now).

Any way, despite the fact that I have very good builders I quite like the fact that people pay some attention to this, and so I arranged for a quote on Friday with the proviso that he call first.

Then on Wednesday a neighbour said that he had seen this man on my front lawn looking at my windows. “What are you doing?” he asked, to which he got a rather aggressive reply. As I didn’t have the phone number for L Joyce Ltd I thought I’d wait for the call and tell them that I could not deal with them due to the aggressiveness and rudeness.

Well today he called round, without a telephone call first. I explained that I did not want a quote, and why I did not want a quote. And then I got an aggressive response back, “Thanks for wasting my time” (no swearing or intimidation, just a raised voice).

So I can’t vouch for the work of L Joyce Ltd Windows & Doors, but I can tell you that if you do use them, make sure that you don’t get into any misunderstandings, as it could turn very ugly.

John Prescott was always known for being, well, less academic than was average among Labour MPs. Not able to grasp complex issues, unable to put a sentence together and always blaming his far superior wife for everything from taking short car journeys to accepting peerages – those were his good points. However being the clown has worked for most Liberal leaders in my lifetime, and unlike them Prescott was a clear eyed thug – which you need in politics.

The problem with the clown act is that it starts to become real and the problem with clear eyed thugs is that they become destructive when they stop seeing as clearly. Calling Alan Milburn a “collaborator” is not doing the Labour Party any good, which I have no doubt that John Prescott loves deeply.

Britain needs a sensible opposition to the coalition, otherwise they will do what all unchallenged governments do and grow arrogant. This does not mean comparing them to occupying Germans. Particularly if you are the pro-Lisbon party – do you now see how silly it sounds?

There are sensible voices out there in Labour’s benches. Will Straw is calling for a Labour narrative on the structural deficit, Lord Myners has made an after the event speech in the House of Lords attacking the overspending and Ipswich’s own Kevan Lim attacked his party for the orgy of untruth that they were engaging in regarding the UK’s economic situation.

Do Ipswich Labour Party follow this self destructive course? If so many of them weren’t backing Ed Balls then we’d have less cause to worry.