Bridge Ward News » Laurelhayes

Southern Cement – the media take an interest

James Spencer — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:29:40 +0000

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?

Southern Cement – more southern than you’d think

James Spencer — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:11:04 +0000

Sometimes it’s hardest to see what’s in front of your own nose. So hidden in plain view is a very important fact, Southern Cement- the people causing misery for all those people in the Hayes, in the Maidenhall Estate, on the Wherstead Road and in Chatsworth Crescent, is in fact the British subsidiary of Uniland SA, a large Spanish cement company. It was on their homepage:

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.

The Cement Ship Shriek – What are Southern Cement playing at?

James Spencer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:32:52 +0000

Southern Cement seem to be doing their best to keep you up at night. On Tuesday night they were going at full pelt with that annoying and constant high pitched shriek guaranteed to keep people up as far as Chatsworth Crescent and Laurelhayes. They then stopped yesterday during the day, only to start again around 7.30 PM. They then stopped at around nine this morning.

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.