On Monday 13th June between 1pm and 4pm on Rectory Road, Ipswich offenders have forced the locks from a garden shed and taken a silver and blue boys BMX bike 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/11/2690.

The Smock on Maidenhall Road, right in the heart of the Maidenhall Estate and next to Stoke High School, has an entirely inappropriate licencing application that will make this pub in the middle of the estate into a night club.  Phil Smart is opposing this, which is quite nice of him as it will not affect him in the slightest as he lives as far outside the ward as he has for all the two and a half decades that he has been the absentee councillor for Bridge.

But there’s something strange here. 

Who completely overhauled the licencing laws at the behest of the alcohol lobby?  Phil Smart’s Labour Party.

Who sent a text message to younger voters in the 2001 election saying “couldn’t give a ‘four x’ for last orders? Vote Labour on Thursday for extra time“.  Phil Smart’s Labour Party.

Who imposed the utterly non-sensical smoking ban that made the community pub unsustainable, putting all night drinking as the only way for many pubs to avoid closing?  Phil Smart’s Labour Party.

Now it is certainly the case that all political parties make mistakes.  The Tories have made more than their share of mistakes from the Maastricht treaty to the threatened closure of the Stoke Park library.  The difference between a decent representative and a party hack is not whether you mean well, but whether you put your constituents before your party.  I live in Bridge, it’s easy for me to make the choice.  But what about the present Labour councillors?

I feel strongly about it because I live in Belstead Avenue, literally up the road from the Smock.  I remember from when I was living in Rectory Road the Friday and Saturday nights (and early mornings) in summer that we had to endure, and I don’t want them repeated here with an all night drinking den down the street.

Phil Smart is not a bad man.  He may be socially awkward and find it hard to accept constituents’ opinions that differ from his own but he means well.  He is not weirdly and coldly ambitious unlike another Bridge Ward councillor (although let’s be fair she could represent anywhere, if it already had a large Labour majority).  He looks vaguely human and you imagine that he would not sell his mother to get up another political rung, unlike his group leader.  And he doesn’t get drunk and blurt out absurd death threats as yet another Labour councillor does.  By the admittedly low standards of the Ipswich Labour party he’s just about OK.

However the question is when it comes to the crunch will he stand by his party or his, admittedly distant, constituents?  So here’s a test by which he can redeem himself:

Will he admit that his party made a complete hash of licencing reform at the behest of the alcohol lobby?

Will he praise Ben Gummer for voting for a partial relaxation of the smoking ban in pubs and condemn Chris Mole for his wholehearted support of the destruction of community pubs?

Will he condemn the 2001 Labour campaign, of which he was a key part in Ipswich, for so enthusiastically calling for all night drinking?

I would love to be wrong on this, but I don’t think he will.

In Rectory Road, Ipswich between 1.30pm and 3pm Tuesday 11th January a door was forced to gain entry to a house and items stolen from within.  Items stolen include 45 Playstation 3 games, a 60GB Playstation 3, an Agfa digital photo frame, a Casio digital camera, a black Nintendo DS, a Seagate Expansion hard drive, an Acer laptop, a Nokia 5230 mobile phone, bank cards, a black Dell laptop and another mobile phone.

Were you in the area between these times, did you notice any unusual activity or do you know where any of these items are now? Calls in relation to this incident should be made to Ipswich CID on 01473 613500 reference IW/11/183

OR

Please use the following link to pass any useful information to Suffolk Police about this incident.

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

It hit us for about an hour and it came on just after 11PM.  When I called they said it was a substation fault.  Could it be another person nicking copper wire?

A useful number in these circumstances is 0800 783 8838.

Does anyone know how I could do this?

It was great to see a number of posters being taken and even a leaflet deliverer being found.

The best response was from a Labour voter. “Are you voting for Gordon Brown?” “Not Gordon Brown! Labour!”

So until I get the photos, here’s one to boost our chances in Ipswich:

It's Ben Gummer or this man will nick the rest of your pension

Does anyone know of any other road names in the ward with an odd history?

No doubt with the madcap parking schemes being designed by the absentee Labour councillors we will soon have plenty of Rectory Road residents coming to Belstead Avenue as there will only enough parking places for half of Rectory Road when the double yellow lines come in.

Anti-social behaviour is a real and very nasty stain on people’s lives.  Even down to firebugs burning grass on Wherstead Road or raucous all night parties on Rectory Road, this is when the streets start to get out of control.  No ID card will sort that out if all the kids get is a kiss, cuddle and caution.  Crime and anti-social behaviour is caused by a small minority of people, and the system should be focussing on that minority, not the vast majority who may overfill their dustbin after Christmas.

Luckily there is a group in Ipswich that wants to do something about ID cards.  They should be in the town centre next week.