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.

If your street does not have the gritter visiting it, then get in touch with me about the grit bins.  We can’t rely on the greenhouse effect to clear our roads.  Unless we’re the Met Office.

It’s on at Saturday 26th June from 1pm onwards.

One of the nice things about getting close to the General Election is the amount of mutual aid that you get.

Here are some pictures

Why are some through routes gritted and others aren’t?

Will our road be treated?

When you phone up to warn of impending accidents and told that the road will be gritted, why isn’t it?

I think we’ve got to be honest and say that people have been very confused as to the response of Ipswich council on the gritters.  But the problem is not that there isn’t a gritter up every street, it’s just we don’t know where the gritters are.

The council needs to tell people before hand whether or not there road will be gritted.  This will mean that people can prepare, by for example keeping rock salt.  If they want to elect someone who’s going to tax them till the pips squeak but put a gritter up every path and side road (and run out of rock salt within three days) then they can vote Labour.  That’s what a democracy is.

It’s the not knowing that’s really infuriating.   Both on the Ipswich Council site and the Highways department there’s no update or advice.  There’s no explanations as to why no pavements are treated, even busy ones such as those leading down from Belstead Road and into Burrell Road.  There’s a perception that gritting is much less than in previous years.

One of the most troubling worries is that council officials (I know that there is a taboo on publicly criticising council officials, but it needs to be done) will come down on people like a ton of bricks if they clear the road or pavement.  This perception doesn’t come about by accident.

So we need to be informed of whether or not the roads and pavements we use will be gritted.  We should be kept informed through the cold period as to what’s going on. And we need to be told clearly that we will not be punished for helping to maintain the safety of our streets.

https://www.ipswich.gov.uk/site/scripts/xforms_form.php?formID=152

As Belstead Avenue is used as a through road by drivers who dislike the incline on Luther Road this is not acceptable. I’ve seen two near accidents in the last few days.

The fact that Belstead Avenue is slightly cut off means that the gritter lorries don’t come by and the road is an ice rink, at least the two thirds that is not linking Luther Road and the Maidenhall Estate.

What was dispiriting was talking to a couple of the neighbours, public spirited people who have cleared their drives and helped their neighbours.  When we were moaning about the lack of grit on the steep and sharp downhill bend that is Belstead Avenue.  I suggested that we get some salt and put it on the road.  ”The council won’t let us do that on their road” was the reply.

Whether or not it’s true (and to my shame I don’t know whether that’s the case) it just goes to show what the health and safety nonsense is doing to communities up and down the country.  We all moan about it but still it seems to pile on, and that’s before we get to the snow.  It doesn’t seem to matter who’s in charge the health and safety rules still come, and worse there’s a paralysis that comes to any community organisation.

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.

Normal service will resume and emails will be answered then. 

I’ve had someone complain about not getting through to my home number, so sorry about that.