Entries Tagged 'Ipswich Port Noise Abatement' ↓

Isn’t it funny how the cement ship’s in the day after the public meeting?  I wonder if there was a deliberate delay?

We will be talking about this to the Maidenhall Residents’ Association at the Bowls Pavilion in Halifax Road at 7pm tonight.  (If you are not from Maidenhall then please remember that this will not be solely about the noise).

There’s been some media reaction to the meeting yesterday.

Radio Suffolk and Town 102 both publicised the event.  Here is the Mark Murphy show that has me (24 minutes in) and Matthew Ling of the Environment Services (1 hour 37 minutes in)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p004kwht/Mark_Murphy_06_10_2009/

We also got a write up of the meeting from the Evening Star:

http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content/eveningstar/news/story.aspx?brand=ESTOnline&category=News&tBrand=ESTOnline&tCategory=xDefault&itemid=IPED07%20Oct%202009%2006:18:54:530

They estimated about 100.  I’d say it was closer to  (actually slightly over) 150, having done church attendance counting almost every week for the last four years.  Still packed.

It’s such a shame that the Labour supporter Chris Ward had to put in such an ignorant response:

Just finished the noise meeting which was quite productive.  There were about 150 people there.

Some of the highlights:

• No one from Southern Cement wanted to speak or identify themselves, which was expected.  No one from the Port of Ipswich did either, which was disappointing.
• There are plenty of people outside the Noise Action Group who are very angry.  If Southern Cement and Uniland think that these people won’t cause problems if they’re snubbed, then Associated British Ports after the animal rights protests will have a different idea.  Dialogue with the Noise Action Group will keep hot heads cool.
• It was nice of Chris Mole to turn up, but he gave a poor speech.
• Phil Smart gave a better speech than Chris Mole, and had the germ of a good idea with getting residents to talk to the port in general.
• There were lots of ideas for quietening the operation, some better than others.
• Nadia Cenci, who suffers from the noise, gave a great speech, asking not why, but how, to sue Southern Cement and Associated British Ports to close them down.  Again this is another worse alternative than dialogue.
• There are people miles away who hear this.  We knew that, but we found more.
• The dust is an emerging issue which is angering a lot of
• Council officers sounded well and truly peeved with Southern Cement’s refusal to talk to residents.  After all at times they were being abused because Southern Cement won’t talk.
• Only one person refused to give their contact details at the end of the meeting.

So Southern Cement, I know that you read this blog, and I know you want a way out.  It’s d-i-a-l-o-g-u-e .  It’s better than being shut down.

I know it’s becoming old news for the regular readers, but the public meeting is coming up.  We’ve been saying that the council don’t listen to us, well they are now.  If you don’t turn up they’ll say that you’re not interested.

It’s rumoured that the BBC may have more listeners than this blog has readers, so I’m going to be on Radio Suffolk tomorrow at 6.50 AM to drum up more support.

Details again:

Date: Tuesday 6 October

Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: IP-City Centre, Bath Street (near Wherstead Road)

A lot of Tories were canvassing on Wherstead Road and Bostock Road yesterday and got most of the expected concerns, port and traffic noise and the buses – together with a new concern of parking.

You know how serious this port noise is getting when one of the people you talk to is in the process of moving only because of the noise.

This is why you need to be at the public meeting on Tuesday 6pm at the IP-City Centre.

However the strength of the feeling on port noise.

We have some self print leaflets to publicise the meeting on the Port Noise at the IP Centre on Tuesday.  Pleas email me if you want a copy on noise@bridgeward.org.uk

Just a quick reminder that there is a public meeting on the port noise:

Date: Tuesday 6 October

Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: IP-City Centre, Bath Street (near Wherstead Road)

Sadly cement importers to think that pollution is a positive way of engaging the community, but marine pollution has been  dealt with in another part of Suffolk, with oil tankers to be banned from oil transfers.  There’s three lessons to be learnt from this:

• A hard working and sympathetic local MP like John Gummer can get results
• The Transport ministry team, of which Chris Mole is a part, can stop shipping pollution – perhaps Chris Mole should remember this in his part time job as MP for Ipswich
• Regulatory agencies only have two modes – allow and ban.  There are far, far worse things for unpopular companies than getting a voluntary arrangement with residents.

Until now I have never properly understood what they mean by the term “groundswell”, but this is what is happening with the port noise.  I’ve spoken to politicians of all sides and they are shocked at the anger that this issue is raising.  Relying on lawyers to terrify Ipswich council will not help with that anger, and that anger is rising.

The only thing that will cut down the anger is engaging with the community.  The longer Southern Cement thumb their nose at their neighbours the harder the council will find it to help them.

We’ve had some good news with the leafleting for the Noise Action leaflets.

We’ve had leafleting done the Maidenhall Estate, Wherstead Road, Belstead Road, Chatsworth Crescent, Rectory Road, the Old Stoke area, Phillip and Martin streets, the Hayes and Belstead Avenue. Special thanks to the Maidenhall Residents Association.

We will still need more leafleting because there are hundreds of people who are still not aware of why their sleep is being disturbed. One leafletter, who’s leafleted a number of roads around Phillip road said “ps, a lady I spoke to in Martin Road (luther road end) has been disturbed by the noise and was very interested in the leaflet.” How many others are out there?

By awakening people like this woman, leaflets will turn this from a local irritant to a major issue for the council.

If you can help please let me know. If you have friends or relatives who are disturbed by the noise then please let them know about the leafleting (or forward this email) and see if they can help.

I was rather angry at the environment portfolio holder Louise Gooch’s comments that the Noise Action Group wanted to shut down Southern Cement.  We’ve always been quite clear that this is not what we wanted. I emailed her to let her know that I was angry.

And a miracle occurred.

A politician changed their mind.  The presentation put on by the Noise Action Group convinced her that we wanted to be good neighbours (a phrase we keep on using).  It does seem that the councillors really, really resent Southern Cement for putting them in the position that they are in.

Other news, the Evening Star have put out a piece on the internet about the Council executive meeting, here.