Entries Tagged 'Maidenhall Estate' ↓

The path between Halifax cut and Bourne Park is in a shocking state of repair, partly due to the fact that no one is quite sure of who owns it.  The right of way is not certain either.  Ben Gummer asked a question on the right of way last week:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether Network Rail plans to make formal arrangements for public access to the footpath it owns between Bourne park and Halifax road in respect of its location on Sustrans National Cycle Route 1.

The reply from Theresa Villiers, the Minister of State for Railways was quite bland:

This is an operational matter for Network Rail as the owner and operator of the national rail network. My hon. Friend should contact Network Rail’s acting chief executive at the following address for a response to his question:

Peter Henderson

Acting Chief Executive

Network Rail

Kings Place

90 York Way

London, N1 9AG.

I am told the Network Rail are in fact looking at this now, although there is an ownership issue.

The odd thing is that in the last government the minister for railways was none other than Chris Mole.  I know that Philip Smart has been looking into this issue as well, but either never thought that Chris Mole would be interested or Chris Mole simply was not interested in such a small matter that affected “little people”.  After all according to Freedom of Information requests he had no meetings with the executives of National Express East Anglia during his time in the Ministry of Transport, and that inaction affected thousands of his constituents – many of them on a daily basis.

(When Ben Gummer did his cycle around Ipswich I made sure that the cycle Ipswich people put the route through that path, even though it is not one of the marked roads, so now he knows first hand how shockingly bad it is).

Congratulations to Michael Lord and Richard Spring for getting  into the House of Lords.  There’s no real reason to do this apart from inserting an old picture of now Lord Spring when he was campaigning in Bridge at the last election:

Now Lord Spring at Hillside

He was especially keen to be photographed outside the Sure Start near Hillside after hearing the story about Gordon Brown’s visit being disrupted by an independent minded three year old telling everyone “Oh no,  hide” when the Scottish pension stealer came in the room.  (Sadly I can’t find either that video on the Evening Star site or the Sure Start picture on my computer).

I was very impressed with the then Mr Spring who despite the fact that he was about to leave Parliament proved himself to be a very enthusiastic campaigner, and I know from both Labour and Tories that MPs who are just about to depart tend not to be very interested in knocking on doors.

Related articles

• Arise Lord Lord (iaindale.blogspot.com)

From Suffolk Police:

On Monday 11th October between 6.45pm and 8.45pm on Flint Close, Ipswich offenders have climbed onto a wheelie bin to scale a wall and have then forced entry to a property via the rear door and taken a Playstation 3 and a laptop computer from within.

Were you in the area at the time, did you see anything suspicious? Do you know the name of the offender or offenders? If you have any information please contact Suffolk Police on 01473 613500 quoting reference IW/10/4503.

A Labour councillor in Bridge Ward called me “more than a little bit arrogant” and a Labour councillor outside Bridge called me a “big head”.  Perhaps they weren’t talking about my speaking out of turn after all.

All I can say is that if I can make Ben Gummer photogenic, I must have some talent.

(No road signs got broken in the making of this photograph.)

The potholes were particularly bad this year due to the thaw and freeze winter, but Maidenhall Approach is quite a major arterial route, essentially for the Maidenhall Estate, where it is the main route in to the Estate. It also has a lot of buses coming down that route. There is quite a large pothole outside 23 Maidenhall Approach, which is both near a bus stop and the nursery.

I’ve got in touch with the transport portfolio holder and will keep going on with this.

It’s today. Stoke High School. Starts at 11. Goes on to 4.

Just as a reminder, the Fun Day is at Stoke High School. It starts at 11 AM, and goes on to about 4 PM.

It should be great fun. Be there.

This should be a good day. It’s at the Halifax Bowls Pavillion and there will be a climbing wall and a children’s fancy dress parade. The mayor will be opening it around 11 AM and the fun goes on until 4pm.

The Maidenhall Residents Association are arranging a trip to Great Yarmouth on Saturday 14th August, which is £6.50 for members and £8.50 for non members.

The email is maidenhallres@tiscali.co.uk or they can be found in the shop 21 Maidenhall Green, Ipswich, IP2 8PJ. The office on Maidenhall Green is open most week days from noon to 2pm. You can also call them on 683 534.

At the South West Area Forum I made the point that there was a growing pattern of teenage vandalism on the Maidenhall Estate, and that this was a small and persistent group. The councillors for Bridge had more important things to do and unlike the other three wards did not even have one councillor present, after all the police were only setting priorities for the area – an exercise where Bridge came off very badly.

It is only getting worse. The Stoke Green Baptist church has been vandalised. Here’s the police report:

On Friday 23rd July between 7.45pm and 8pm on Halifax Road, Ipswich offenders have thrown a large stone through a window at a church.

A group of eight white males between 14 17 years old wearing sports clothing and carrying rucksacks were seen to run off at the time.

Were you in the area at the time, did you see anything suspicious? Do you know the name of the offender or offenders? If you have any information please contact Suffolk Police on 01473 613500 quoting reference IW/10/3280.

Here’s the link if you want to give information on line:

http://www.suffolk.police.uk/News+And+Appeals/Report+Information+To+The+Police/Tell+The+Police.htm