Further to my interest in the Stoke Hall Vaults, I found this picture of an air raid poster among the Stoke Hall Vaults pictures.  There’s also some pictures of some of the wine bottles that were there when it was a cellar.

When I lived in Rectory Road quite a few people would talk about the Stoke Hall cellars, or Stoke Hall vaults.  I’ve written about it in the past, but I really want to see down there.  They were built in the seventeenth century and were still in active use in the twentieth century.  There’s an article from the BBC on this as well as a large number of photographs, but I’d rather like to walk under my old house.

Does anyone know how I could do this?

There has been quite a lot of news about the Suffolk Care homes going out of the control of Suffolk County Council.  Of course in these hard times you would expect our Labour councillors to be even handed and put the care of the elderly above the entrenched employment privileges of the Unison members.  You’d be wrong.  It may have something to do with the fact that Unison is one of the four unions who keep Labour financially afloat and choose the leader.

Anyway on Suffolk County Council’s website there are three care homes in Ipswich, Crabbe Street, Hawthorn Drive and Sidegate Lane.  Hawthorn Drive is the closest to Bridge.

For reference the care homes in Bridge Ward, together with who run them are:

Prince of Wales Drive Residential Care Home (The Partnership in Care Limited)

Peppercorn House (Riverside ECHG)

Montgomery Court (BUPA)

Gwent House, Pembroke Close (Ipswich Borough Council)

Pauls Flats, Rectory Road (Ipswich Borough Council)

Felaw Street (Hanover Housing Association)

I was working from home today so I walked around Rectory Road, which is where I used to live. In my old house, and one of the neighbouring house there are three holes in the windows that look like they are bullet holes. They had been made on Saturday night.

I talked to people in both houses and they think that it is simple vandalism with an air gun, but this needs to be verified and whoever has done this does need to be tracked down.

There is a school of thought on crime prevention that is known as the “broken windows” theory. This is the belief that small crimes should not be overlooked as they lead to bigger crimes. This is a literal example of the broken window. It should not be seen as an act of simple vandalism, but a crime where a gun was aimed at an occupied house.

I will be keeping tabs on the police investigation.

I used to live in Rectory Road and now I live in Belstead Avenue. When I was moving I had to make the journey between the two roads a lot and I was always amazed at how hard it was to get across the road at Luther Road and Station Street.

Now I’m an able bodied man in my thirties and can look after myself. However with both Hillside Primary School and Stoke High School, let alone the Sure Start centre either in Belstead Avenue or Maidenhall Approach there are a lot of children who are from the area around Rectory Road who are expected to cross this road every day. Many of these children are very young.

If we want to encourage walking and cut down on the potential for accidents then we need to get a crossing at the part of the road where Luther Road and Station Street meet.

There will be photos shortly but we did Croft Street, the new developments around Bruff Road and my old stomping ground of Rectory Road. Therese Coffey, the candidate for Suffolk Coastal came down to help and brought a number of canvassers with her. Thank you Therese. We also had a team out in Heatherhayes to say hello to the Lib Dems and another team phone canvassing (although not in Bridge).

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

On the weekend evenings you realise the difference between Belstead Avenue and Rectory Road, there are not the hordes of people very loudly coming home from the pubs and nightclubs.  However what can sometimes be a blessing can also be less of a blessing at other times.

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.

Well at last I’ve moved from Rectory Road to Belstead Avenue, I’m still in the ward though.  I’ve made a lot of friends in Rectory Road and I will miss them (in fact as I was moving out I seemed to see most of them) but I’ve already made a few friends in Belstead Avenue and as I now own a place it somehow feels a bit more permanent and that I’ve got a bit more of a stake in the place.

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.

If you are a commuter who lives in Bridge ward (like me) then you may be interested in this facebook group.  If you are a commuter who does not live in Bridge, could you please stop parking in Rectory Road?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166832928595&ref=nf

There do seem to be a quite a few people who don’t live in Ipswich who want to belong to this group, which suggests that some people have too much time on their hands.  But then there are a couple of councillors who don’t live in Bridge that suggests that they don’t think their neighbours appreciate them.

Look East has an article on how Ipswich is going to be asked by the government to choose a street in which they will flatter or bully the residents into recycling more and undoubtedly foist on them more and more bins.

Don’t they see the inconvenience that the current policy is forcing on anyone without substantial gardens.  It’s no surprise that most councillors, of all parties, have spacious and well appointed gardens.  Three bins are not filling up a good proportion of their back garden.  If you live on a terrace in Rectory Road then it’s a different story.

It’s no surprise that the original policy originated in Brussels, another one size fits all European law, Directive 75/442/EEC.