So the elections are here and we have the declared runners and riders.

Sitting councillor Jim Powell is standing for Labour. I’ve not yet got the message and I’m standing for the Conservatives for the third time in a row. Ric Hardacre is the token Liberal Democrat and Rick Deeks is standing for the Green Party again.

It’s an unusual election for Bridge as all the main party candidates (and the Liberal Democrat) actually live in the ward.

There are two candidates who aren’t standing, Kim Christofi, who was keen on “proclaiming the Lordship of Christ” but didn’t meet with the particulars. The BNP, who stood last year with a local candidate who lived in Stoke Hall Road, also didn’t stand – probably trouble with Dennis the Bloater the BNP parliamentary candidate who seems to fall out with everyone he meets.

Louise Gooch has presented a report to the Ipswich Borough Council Executive on the Cement Ship (it’s linked here and in PDF).

I would have liked it to have waited until after the Port Liaison Committee next week and to have been a bit stronger on the fact that we haven’t judged the silencer over the summer, but it seems fair enough on the noise.

I would say that the dust is a bigger issue than they think, its’ definitely been something that people are still talking about around Bridge. Louise Gooch, who was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Bridge at the County Council election, so it is rather ironic that she can’t see the issue that’s clearly developing here. It may be no bigger than a man’s hand at the moment, but these things quickly develop.

People are being kept up by the containers on the West Bank now, and I hope to have more on this later. But it is good to see that the Port issues are not as all encompassing as they were just six months ago. Perhaps Labour can stop taking credit for the work of the Noise Action Group now.

Edit: I forgot to thank Ipswich Spy. Bad manners.

I was at the Wherstead Road Residents Association reporting the committee on what I’ve been doing on the buses and the noise yesterday and having almost got run over crossing the road it seems clear that the road needs a crossing.

This is something that the committee are clear on, in fact the Association has been requesting that since the 1970s (they’re not quitters).  This could, if sited in the right part of the road also slow down the traffic and discourage the lorries that Ipswich Council when under the Labour party encouraged when they stopped the roads being built for the east bank.

The tragedy is that if Bridge was a ward that was marginal when the council were looking at the decision then the interests of the ward would not have been so cavalierly overlooked.  There are only three people who benefit from Bridge being a safe ward, the councillors, and two of them don’t even like Bridge enough to live in it.

The Council runs a bus service.  They want to sell it off.  There is a big local campaign led by the local (and under threat) Labour MP.  The government minister in charge says that while sympathetic, there’s nothing he wants to do, saying that it’s up to councils.

But it’s not Ipswich, it’s Plymouth.  And the minister who has the power to shut the whole thing down?  Chris Mole.

He could do the whole thing in Ipswich, his own patch.  He won’t.  Why?

Well if you look at the speech it gives a clue, lot’s of talk about how much he likes council owned bus services and no real action to keep them council owned.

He may not exercise his power to keep the buses council owned, but at least it will get the petitions signed and the vote out.  And in the end that’s all that counts in Labour’s once proud Fortress Ipswich.

At last the Tories respond on the potential sale of the stake in Ipswich Buses to the Go-Ahead group.  Obviously it’s partisan, mercilessly mocking Labour on their three positions on bus privatisation (nationally for, locally both adamantly against and saying maybe but not yet).  That’s to be expected, after all with Chris Mole as the transport minister Labour can’t make much of the running on this unless Chris Mole were to veto or delay this measure.  And if he were to do that in his backyard then there would be wild fires in all these areas such as Plymouth where he’s helped to push through bus sell offs.  Expect a lot of Conservative canvassers to point out the role of the undersecretary of transport and MP for Ipswich in the bus sell off.

Labour’s best local issue has for some time been the buses, but their MP has been instrumental in the municipal sell offs.  If I were a local councillor I would be furious to see my best gun spiked.  And after the hospital.

A left of Labour candidate could clean up, although in Ipswich there’s no real action on the ground apart from a couple of blogs (Andrew Coates has written nothing since his “utter numpty” post, instead talking about the attitude of the Irish Greens on blasphemy laws, the socialist leanings of David Tenant.  No really, I didn’t make either of these two up.

Will the Greens move in with a full throated cry for municipal ownership of the buses, with public transport, anti-commercialism and local ownership it should be made for them.  If they do would they be able to get their message through to the large Estates on the outskirts where the issue could catch fire?  Even if they weren’t pushing all their troops into Norwich South at the General Election, this is probably not something they could do even if they wanted to.

I still think this is going to get the Labour vote out and could lose the Tories a knife edge seat (like Bridge) but it could have been so, so much bigger.  Oh Mr Mole, what have you done?

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)

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.

The Public meeting will now be at the IP-City centre at the top of Wherstead Road.

The Council Executive today considered the application for the Southern Cement expansion.  They were told in no uncertain terms by the Council officers that they could do … nothing.  There will be a fuller report in the Evening Star tomorrow, and I can’t do shorthand.  Some highpoints:

• Des Pawson put across the case very well, showing damning evidence that dangerous cement dust was being passed through Ipswich already
• Paul West, who hears the noise along with his constituents, and Philip Smart, whose constituents hear the noise, talked for their constituents who are becoming increasingly aware of what is ruining their sleep
• Councillors were very angry with the arrogance and dismissive attitude of Southern Cement and Uniland, and it’s quite clear that if they can do anything to scupper Southern Cement, they will.
• The decision will be made after the public meeting
• The council officers are quite clear that there will be an increase in the number of times that residents will be kept up if they are allowed to expand
• At the end the council leader Liz Harsant said that she was suffering from the noise – something she had kept quiet from everyone

Remember the Council executive will be hearing arguments for and against whether Southern Cement should expand its operations.

It will be at Grafton House in the Orwell Room, 15-17 Russell Road, at 6pm Tuesday 22^nd September.You can get a map here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Grafton+House+Ipswich&ie=UTF8&ll=52.054259,1.143179&spn=0.008075,0.027509&z=15&iwloc=A

If you let me know about whether a lift will be needed then I can see about getting lifts arranged.

It is very important to tell your friends and neighbours.