Entries Tagged 'Ipswich Port Noise Abatement' ↓

Although there are still complaints from Wherstead Road, I’ve not really heard anything about the boat outside there, and even in Wherstead Road the complaints are less strident. Please let me know if you are suffering in silence as the assumption is forming among many of the councillors that there is less of an issue. Autumn is the high point of complaints historically, so there may be worse to come, although as a believer that the cement ship noise is largely wind and atmosphere dependent I think that this is a lagging indicator and that the worse noise is usually about now, high Summer. Is the silencer actually working?

In related news I hear that Southern Cement, despite applying to build their silo, have not actually been able to find the money to do so. Of course if they actually engaged with the community these rumours would be easily quashed. Shows that no matter how expensive the corporate lawyers are, sometimes their advice can be unmitigated rubbish.

(To help investors, potential customers and suppliers find this post through Google I’ll stress that this is Uniland SA, trading as Southern Cement Ltd, at Cliff Quay in the Port of Ipswich.)

The next meeting is on the 24th. If you have any comments or questions on the port and whether it is being a good neighbour then please email me on james@bridgeward.org.uk and I will take your queries further.

I’ve heard reports that the cement ship is back, but this time very, very quiet.

I hope that this is true, and that the weekend was an aberration.

I am still getting complaints about the weekend, including one from a councillor.

If the cement company could only talk to us then things would be far better.

Has anyone noticed any cement ship noise on Friday night (23rd April) and all day Saturday (24th April)?

People have been woken at 3 AM again and we don’t want this to be going on.

Update: Since I’ve posted this I’ve had two people from Wherstead Road, someone in the Chatsworth Crescent area (Blickling Close to be exact) and a person from Headingham Close saying that they’ve heard this. So we need to make sure that we’re on top of this.

This picture is from when Ben Gummer went to Madrid to meet with Cementos Portland, the holding company of Southern Cement’s holding company to talk to them about their reaction to the port noise.

Although at the last minute they refused to meet him they did fit a silencer on the concrete extractor shortly afterwards with very few complaints about night time noise. So if you add this to his heart campaign Ben Gummer can so far boast that he has helped send a lot more people to hospital and a large number of Ipswich residents asleep.

Ben Gummer presenting his letter on the Ipswich Port Noise in Madrid

(Whenever I put up a picture of Ben Gummer it is customary for me to make some joke about his appearance. However in town yesterday I was mistaken for him three times. The poor lad’s suffered enough.)

Louise Gooch has presented a report to the Ipswich Borough Council Executive on the Cement Ship (it’s linked here and in PDF).

I would have liked it to have waited until after the Port Liaison Committee next week and to have been a bit stronger on the fact that we haven’t judged the silencer over the summer, but it seems fair enough on the noise.

I would say that the dust is a bigger issue than they think, its’ definitely been something that people are still talking about around Bridge. Louise Gooch, who was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Bridge at the County Council election, so it is rather ironic that she can’t see the issue that’s clearly developing here. It may be no bigger than a man’s hand at the moment, but these things quickly develop.

People are being kept up by the containers on the West Bank now, and I hope to have more on this later. But it is good to see that the Port issues are not as all encompassing as they were just six months ago. Perhaps Labour can stop taking credit for the work of the Noise Action Group now.

Edit: I forgot to thank Ipswich Spy. Bad manners.

The cement ship is in again, and it’s making noise.

And in other news my site seems to have got triple the amount of unique visitors and these sites are looking at three or four times the amount of pages per visit, and almost all of it is from places like Kuwait or China.  The site is very likely to exceed its bandwidth soon unless I figure out a way of blocking what could be a denial of service attack.

It’s berthing now and will probably be starting at 10 AM.

Let us know at noise@bridgeward.org.uk if you hear anything

Never heard of Nick Herbert?*

Well if the Tories do win the General Election you will hear about him a lot more.  He’s the shadow environment spokesman for the Conservatives, so it’s a good chance he’ll become a minister if the Tories get in.

When I heard that he was coming down to help Ben Gummer I lobbied the Ipswich Tories to get him down to the docks to get him to talk to some people from the Noise Action Group and the Wherstead Road Residents’ Association about the way in which the port was operating.

The Noise Action Group then got the chance to tell the man who could be the next Environment Minister about how the port can be dismissive of its neighbours, and that engaging people who want a working port that’s a good neighbour will be better than in three years time trying to engage people who don’t want a working port as any sort of neighbour.

Hopefully ABP will at some point see sense and engage with those who wish it well.

Nick Herbert also became a fan of the Steamboat Tavern, which is as it should be.

A photo of Ben Gummer in this blog that he won't object to. Ben Gummer takes Nick Herbert to the Steamboat Tavern to meet the Noise Action Group and the Wherstead Road Residents Association

*I actually had heard of Nick Herbert, but I’m a political anorak on the sly.

I have been told that the port noise focus group minutes will be up on the council web site soon. �I will put up a link to that as soon as possible.

If someone wants the minutes please email me on james@bridgeward.org.uk