The promised public meeting has at last been announced. I reproduce the text from the email sent to Councillors by the environmental services officer:

“A public meeting of the SW Area Forum has been arranged to discuss resident’s concerns about noise and dust from port activities. The arrangements are as follows

Date: Tuesday 6 October

Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: Chantry High School, Mallard Way, Ipswich

The meeting will discuss concerns over noise from Southern Cement’s operations, and dust from the port in general. (Please be aware that we have had a number of complaints over the last few days concerning dust from a scrap metal operation at Dunn and sons. This is currently being investigated by the Environment Agency).

All those on the SW Area Forum’s distribution list, residents who have complained to the council about noise or dust, the Wherstead Road  Residents Association and the Noise Action Group will be notified shortly with details of the meeting and the Agenda. I would be grateful if members would indicate whether they would like flyers for distribution.

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.

I’ve been trying to contact Southern Cement for a while now, as some of you will know without much success. I’m firmly of the opinion that the best solution all round is for them to voluntarily look for a solution that will enable people to get a night’s sleep.

Last week I thought I was finally getting somewhere when after a couple of attempts to talk to them by phone they called back and asked me to email them, which I promptly did. So after a couple of reminders I got this response from Barry Neale, their UK manager, on Monday:

“Dear Mr Spencer,

I am not able to enter into discussions with you or your group at this stage.”

…and that’s it.

If they were a teenager they’d have an ASBO.  If they were a family they’d be evicted.

Remember the meeting on Tuesday.

The Ipswich Council executive has agreed to consider a petition from the Wherstead Road residents association.  They are opposing Southern Cement’s application to build a new silo and asking the Council to refer this decision to a democratic body. Unfortunately the Council cannot consider the noise as a reason to oppose the extension of the plant. However we are opposing it on the grounds of dust.

We have been told by councillors from both the Conservative and Labour parties that it would be a good idea to get a large number of people to turn up, so please come along and get your friends to come along. It will be in the Orwell Room at Grafton House, 15-17 Russell Road, Ipswich at 6pm on 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.

I encouraged you to comment on the Evening Star article, so I thought I might as well do the same.  This is what I’ve put I’ve said on the site:

If Southern Cement’s accuracy matched their complacency then we would all be a lot better off.

1. They have been going for seven years, but in that time they’ve greatly expanded, taken on new (noisier) equipment and been bought out by a Spanish multinational

2. They have been getting complaints for three years. Implying that these complaints are new seriously misrepresents the whole situation.

3. Council officials ruled on this and not Ipswich Borough Council. Councillors on both sides are far less sympathetic to Southern Cement

4. The Council officials said that they did not have sufficient evidence of statutory nuisance, which is not the same as saying that they thought that Southern Cement were in the clear

Southern Cement seem to be intent on continuing this boycott of talks with sleepless local residents. This harms them because they get no credit for any of the ways they are trying out to minimise the noise. By refusing to talk to their neighbours they are harming their long term business. Not very clever.

There’s an article, rather unsympathetic, in the Evening Star on the port noise here.

What’s interesting is the response from Southern Cement:

“Up until recently this operation has been ongoing for almost seven years without any apparent problem,” the spokesman said.

“The council did not consider there to be any breach of legislation and has written to local residents informing them of this fact. Southern Cement has been actively investigating ways of minimising perceived noise and we will of course co-operate with IBC should further investigations arise.”

Seven years without a complaint?  Well four years at a smaller scale and then a growing number of complaints that’s shaken up the Bridge and Stoke Park areas of Ipswich.

I’m sure that Southern Cement are actively investigating, but wouldn’t it help if they actually talked to local residents?  That way their efforts would at least be known, and communicated to the local community,

You can comment on the article on their website if you wish.

(By the way we’re still looking for leafletters).

I’ve started a Facebook group for the Southern Cement noise (which I heard in Gorsehayes and Briarhayes as well).

You can join it here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128037552644&ref=mf

We need leaflet distributors for the noise abatement campaign.  We’ve got a few thousand and we need them distributed.  Please email the noise abatement group on noise@bridgeward.org.uk

They are professionally produced, non party political leaflets – and as we always seem to find there are an awful lot of people who don’t yet know about the noise.

Peter Evans from the Noise Action Group will be on Radio Suffolk tomorrow (Friday) at 8 am.  The frequencies are 103.9 FM and 104.6 FM.

If you’ve come to this site because of the interview then the mailing list can be joined on:

noise@bridgeward.org.uk

(The address is monitored so you can email details to us).

You can also go to the noise abatement site and enter details here:

http://bridgeward.org.uk/group/noise/home.html

Edit:  I originally got the day and time wrong.  Sorry about the confusion.