Entries Tagged 'Ipswich Port Noise Abatement' ↓

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

I was at Ipswich Council’s Port Focus group.  At one point it was not clear if there were any councillors from Bridge who would be present (Bryony Rudkin did come in later.) I understand that the minutes will be out soon, and I will link to them.  Until then there are some pertinent points:

1.  Southern Cement have fitted on a silencer.  The Council Officers have all claimed that this reduces the noise considerably.

2.  The dust is going to be monitored partly by access to Southern Cement’s close circuit TV cameras

3.  The point was made by many of the councillors and residents that Southern Cement actually hurt their cause and made life more difficult for themselves by refusing to talk to the residents, and councillors.

4.  The Noise Action Group stated that while a silencer was welcome it was too early to declare victory on the noise and the real test will be in spring and early summer when conditions change.

5.  The port focus group leads into the port liaison group.  Yes, it is too bureaucratic but that’s what comes of not talking to residents.  Any way, we’ve elected Peter Evans, one of the founders of the Noise Action Group and by far the most radical of the prominent activists to the Port Liaison Group.

There are other issues which will be addressed later.

The cement ship has been spotted in port, coming in this morning. I noticed a hum at Belstead Avenue at 6.40 in the morning, but it wasn’t that intrusive.
If anyone else notices the hum, or doesn’t notice it, then it would be appreciated if you can let us know. This is going to be a test case for the actions of Southern Cement and the Port of Ipsiwich.

We hope to give a more full account of the port focus group in the near future. We have managed to get Peter Evans, one of the founders of the Noise Action group, appointed to the Port Liaison group. Southern Cement have also fitted a silencer on their unloading machinery. While welcoming this we want to see if the recent quiet spell is due to the silencer or the fact that winter seems to have dampened the noise.

To get on to the Noise Action Group newsletter simply email noise@bridgeward.org.uk

Due to my activity on the Souther Cement I’ve been asked to attend the port focus group.

I will put in a more full account later, but the important piece of news is that the council think that the reason why the noise has reduced is that Southern Cement have installed a silencer.  In the Noise Action Group we are cautiously optimistic but fully aware that last winter the noise was very low as well.

So thank you Southern Cement for the silencer, but we may still have words in April.