Entries from July 2009 ↓

Chris Mole has a website, which is all very nice, and it’s a very good party political website.  However, and you’ve probably guessed it, who pays for it.  Well, I’ve got an expenses claim:

http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/chris-mole/Chris_Mole_0506_IEP.pdf

That’s £2408.75 for a website.  That is as much as it looks.  For example, Public Impact, the rule breaking Labour campaigning group, will do a website for £1200.

So who is this “SS Double Design”?  I don’t want to make any second world war jokes, but, really.

You would have thought that with all the complaints that Southern Cement would have piped down. This email comes from a resident from Wherrstead Road.  I’ve replaced names in a couple of places to preserve anonymity:

Last night 21st/22nd July  was probably the loudest it has been since April,We were in London for the day and walked home via Luther Road, when we got to the top of the hill  about 8.50pm pm the noise hit us . We went to bed at 10.30pm and could not sleep because of the noise of the cement boat unloading, even though we had had a tiring day in London. Still unable to sleep at  12.30am  I phoned in to the council emercancy number and logged a complaint. The noise continued   Liz phoned in at 1.15 am. and at 2.30am My wife was forced  leave our bed and go down stairs to sleep on the floor of our lounge, it being the quietest room in house.

The noise continued with me,(was it a dream? or was I still awake but dreamt) with thoughts of making other noises to over ride the noise . Still going at 5am so I phoned in again , gave my name and suggested that perhaps there had been a lot of complaints and was told that there had been. At I think about 6am it was quiter and  my wife came back to bed and we got a couple of hours sleep . It
started up again but it sounded quieter .  Is the torture intentional?

This photograph is of the Dovecote from the boundary of the ward, at the Wherstead Road entrance to Bourne Park.

I just got this email:

I knew something was odd this morning as they were cleaning the quay side with their mechanical sweeper lorry. It might be a new one.

Anyway as I write 8.45 they are getting the Kovak into place. That means about 11 the ship will arrive and by 12 they should be pumping.

If this is the case then all we have to keep the noise down is heavy weather, or perhaps if they are held up by the heavy weather, then they will have to pump at full tilt as I think weather will be against them. So noise levels will be interesting.

Here are some tips on how to complain:

1.  If the noise is happening outside normal office hours, phone up the emergency noise number on 433444. If the noise is happening in office hours the number is 433115.
2.  Give your name and address and state how it is bothering you
3.  State whether you will be willing to allow environment officers in the room where you are suffering the noise.  Please note that they will not measure noise from your garden or another room.  It usually takes ninety minutes from you complaining to them leaving your house.
4.  Log every instance.
5.  If the noise is still occurring wait for another four hours before complaining again.

Well the meeting was cancelled, and now I’ve been told by both the Evening Star and one of the councillors that the meeting between the council and the Noise Action Group is back on.

There will also be a meeting between Southern Cement and councillors.  Of course what would be best for both sides would be to meet directly, Southern Cement and the Noise Action Group.

So Uniland / Southern Cement, if you want to meet us then you can reach us at james@bridgeward.org.uk or through your usual channels of communication.  Email us, even if you’re not ready yet, even if you want to explain us why you’re not ready yet.

We’re quite nice really, especially when we’ve had a night’s sleep.

I’ve said before that the patron saint of Old Stoke should be Saint Ethelreda.  Well here’s something that was written about the St. Ethelreda’s church in Wherstead Road.

I’ve been asked by another Ipswich blogger to publicise a very worrying practice with the New Deal which includes possible data protection breaches. Other posts on this are here, here and here.

Dencora House is miles away from Bridge, and we do suffer more from unemployment than other parts of Ipswich.

I lost my job in November and was very, very lucky to get another one quite quickly. There for the grace of God…

I’m certainly not against the central idea of the New Deal and I don’t have any hang ups about faith based groups providing public services (I went to a Catholic comprehensive) but the essential complaint is sound, adults should not be treated as children or criminals.

I got a call this afternoon from the Evening Star about the Southern Cement fiasco.  They’ve got wind of the council officers’ proposed climbdown and wanted to know what the Noise Action Group thought.  They actually sounded angry, I suppose they got a promise out of Steve Rock who saw fit to cancel the meeting as soon as he thought that no one was looking.

It’s not the refusal of a couple of council officials to meet us that rankles, councillors from both parties are keeping us up to date and the Council Officials will have to meet with residents soon in some form. What rankles is the refusal of Uniland/Southern Cement’s Ipswich manager, Barry Neale, to even talk to us.

This seems more like commercial suicide than anything else.  Who would want to deal with a company that is constantly at risk of being shut down by a private court action, council enforcement or public protest?

What better way to calm down angry residents than meeting them?

The Big Lunch seems to be on whenever you turn on the TV.  Sadly, the big lunch site hasn’t got anywhere listed for around here.

It’s short notice (19 July), but is anyone interested?

With the noise from the cement ship still going as strong as ever Steve Rock, the Environmental services manager for Ipswich council, agreed in the Evening Star to meet with the Noise Action Group.

Yesterday Steve Rock, has cancelled a meeting with the Noise Action Group without any explanation, saying that he will be announcing what he will be doing (or not doing) on the noise that goes on without explanation or apology.

I’ve also had councillors contacting me saying that he is lobbying them to shut the investigation down and trying to bounce them into releasing a press statement allowing Uniland SA to merely contact the makers of the unloading equipment and do, nothing.

No help to the residents to monitor the noise, no meetings between residents and Barry Neale, nothing.