Although there are still complaints from Wherstead Road, I’ve not really heard anything about the boat outside there, and even in Wherstead Road the complaints are less strident. Please let me know if you are suffering in silence as the assumption is forming among many of the councillors that there is less of an issue. Autumn is the high point of complaints historically, so there may be worse to come, although as a believer that the cement ship noise is largely wind and atmosphere dependent I think that this is a lagging indicator and that the worse noise is usually about now, high Summer. Is the silencer actually working?

In related news I hear that Southern Cement, despite applying to build their silo, have not actually been able to find the money to do so. Of course if they actually engaged with the community these rumours would be easily quashed. Shows that no matter how expensive the corporate lawyers are, sometimes their advice can be unmitigated rubbish.

(To help investors, potential customers and suppliers find this post through Google I’ll stress that this is Uniland SA, trading as Southern Cement Ltd, at Cliff Quay in the Port of Ipswich.)

I’ve heard reports that the cement ship is back, but this time very, very quiet.

I hope that this is true, and that the weekend was an aberration.

I am still getting complaints about the weekend, including one from a councillor.

If the cement company could only talk to us then things would be far better.

Has anyone noticed any cement ship noise on Friday night (23rd April) and all day Saturday (24th April)?

People have been woken at 3 AM again and we don’t want this to be going on.

Update: Since I’ve posted this I’ve had two people from Wherstead Road, someone in the Chatsworth Crescent area (Blickling Close to be exact) and a person from Headingham Close saying that they’ve heard this. So we need to make sure that we’re on top of this.

This picture is from when Ben Gummer went to Madrid to meet with Cementos Portland, the holding company of Southern Cement’s holding company to talk to them about their reaction to the port noise.

Although at the last minute they refused to meet him they did fit a silencer on the concrete extractor shortly afterwards with very few complaints about night time noise. So if you add this to his heart campaign Ben Gummer can so far boast that he has helped send a lot more people to hospital and a large number of Ipswich residents asleep.

Ben Gummer presenting his letter on the Ipswich Port Noise in Madrid

(Whenever I put up a picture of Ben Gummer it is customary for me to make some joke about his appearance. However in town yesterday I was mistaken for him three times. The poor lad’s suffered enough.)

It’s berthing now and will probably be starting at 10 AM.

Let us know at noise@bridgeward.org.uk if you hear anything

Never heard of Nick Herbert?*

Well if the Tories do win the General Election you will hear about him a lot more.  He’s the shadow environment spokesman for the Conservatives, so it’s a good chance he’ll become a minister if the Tories get in.

When I heard that he was coming down to help Ben Gummer I lobbied the Ipswich Tories to get him down to the docks to get him to talk to some people from the Noise Action Group and the Wherstead Road Residents’ Association about the way in which the port was operating.

The Noise Action Group then got the chance to tell the man who could be the next Environment Minister about how the port can be dismissive of its neighbours, and that engaging people who want a working port that’s a good neighbour will be better than in three years time trying to engage people who don’t want a working port as any sort of neighbour.

Hopefully ABP will at some point see sense and engage with those who wish it well.

Nick Herbert also became a fan of the Steamboat Tavern, which is as it should be.

A photo of Ben Gummer in this blog that he won't object to. Ben Gummer takes Nick Herbert to the Steamboat Tavern to meet the Noise Action Group and the Wherstead Road Residents Association

*I actually had heard of Nick Herbert, but I’m a political anorak on the sly.

I was at Ipswich Council’s Port Focus group.  At one point it was not clear if there were any councillors from Bridge who would be present (Bryony Rudkin did come in later.) I understand that the minutes will be out soon, and I will link to them.  Until then there are some pertinent points:

1.  Southern Cement have fitted on a silencer.  The Council Officers have all claimed that this reduces the noise considerably.

2.  The dust is going to be monitored partly by access to Southern Cement’s close circuit TV cameras

3.  The point was made by many of the councillors and residents that Southern Cement actually hurt their cause and made life more difficult for themselves by refusing to talk to the residents, and councillors.

4.  The Noise Action Group stated that while a silencer was welcome it was too early to declare victory on the noise and the real test will be in spring and early summer when conditions change.

5.  The port focus group leads into the port liaison group.  Yes, it is too bureaucratic but that’s what comes of not talking to residents.  Any way, we’ve elected Peter Evans, one of the founders of the Noise Action Group and by far the most radical of the prominent activists to the Port Liaison Group.

There are other issues which will be addressed later.

Due to my activity on the Souther Cement I’ve been asked to attend the port focus group.

I will put in a more full account later, but the important piece of news is that the council think that the reason why the noise has reduced is that Southern Cement have installed a silencer.  In the Noise Action Group we are cautiously optimistic but fully aware that last winter the noise was very low as well.

So thank you Southern Cement for the silencer, but we may still have words in April.

Is it me or are Southern Cement being quieter recently?  I’ve definitely had fewer complaints.

Is it some permanent change that they’ve made, an operational change that can be quickly reversed or is it some environmental factor connected to the weather over which they have no control.

The frustrating thing is that they are not talking to anyone and so we don’t have a clue.

(By the way a big hello to Barclays Bank, who’ve been looking up Southern Cement on the internet recently.  Make sure your Corporate Social Responsibility department get them to talk to the residents.)

Southern Cement were good for a while with very few complaints, and in the last two unloading they’ve created a racket.  And they were less than a week apart.

Apparently they’ve been chided for their use of contract labour which changes operators regularly.  Looks like they’ve chosen badly this time.  If the operator could speak English at all this time.  They don’t tend to be local, these casually employed operators.