After years of waiting, ASDA finally opened their Stoke Park store on August Bank Holiday Monday. The store will be a huge boost to the area bringing in local jobs but we will be watching to make sure that ASDA are sensitive to being in the middle of a residential area.

We have already been reassured that the bright ASDA signs will be controlled and be switched off when the store is closed. It is also good to hear that trolleys cannot be taken off site as their wheels will lock if pushed over the perimeter of the site. Finally, the pathway linking the site and Lanercost Way is back in use. The store is open 24 hours, with deliveries being from 0700 at the earliest.

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?

Looking further it seems that 11.05% of my web hits are from Spain.  Allow for the fact that this is getting low traffic (it’s a new blog, I say defensively) that’s still abnormal.  You’d expect a few people to be assigned wrongly (1.93% of my visitors are from the Republic of Moldova), but not this wrongly.

So the only people who would be interested are Uniland SA, the parent company of Southern Cement, the most offensive noise polluter in Ipswich port.

So a big Hola to all you Catalan cement makers, and please keep the noise down.

http://www.southerncement.co.uk/

Southern Cement still holds itself out as quite independent saying “This gives us the benefit of independence in the UK with the support of one of Europe’s leading cement manufacturers”.

They were bought out in 2004, not long after they started, although there doesn’t seem to be any press mention of Uniland, which makes it sounds a lot more British.

In fact, according to their results, they make up rougly 1-2% of the turnover and employees of the group.

So not only are they disturbing our sleep two weeks in three they are not even the British based independent that they claim to be.

No wonder they are happy to crank up the noise pollution, they don’t just not live in this town – they don’t even live in this country.

This is beyond inconsiderate, it is going out of their way to taunt residents.  To stop during the day and work at night not only extends loading times, it also means that extra power is needed for floodlights and I doubt the contractors charge less for working such unsocial hours.

If you are disturbed by an incessant high pitched noise then please make sure you ring the environmental health department on 01473 433115 or email environmentalprotection@ipswich.gov.uk as soon as you are disturbed.  This is especially the case at night as it is necessary to give a case that this is producing a statutory nuisance.

It would be helpful if you could additionally email me on james@bridgeward.org.uk if you are having any problems.