Now I know that our absentee Labour Councillors are decent, well meaning types, but the thing that gets me up in the morning is their patronising attitude that they know best and we, mere residents, know least.  And that we should be grateful for their concern.

The Labour Party conference showed another example of this paternalistic attitude.  Bryony Rudkin attacked the Suffolk County Council divestment plans.  There’s a lot of questions to ask about this, and there is a job of opposition that needs to be done to keep a place healthy.

But what really stuck in my craw, and those who know me can imagine the violent revulsion that I had to this, was this little point:

At the council meeting last Thursday, one Conservative said his village had come together to build a new doctor’s surgery.

“That might be fine in the nice comfortable villages but who’s going to come together to build the doctor’s surgery in my area of Ipswich where there are some quite serious deprivation issues?”

Now, please tell me that was a clap line for a Neanderthal audience smarting from defeat, and that she didn’t think that it was a serious point.  There may be a more complete speech, which I will be glad to publish.

Bridge has the Wherstead Road Residents Association, still going strong after forty years and the longest continuously functioning residents’ association in Ipswich.  It has the Maidenhall Residents Association that keeps a presence and a community together.  The port noise was stopped largely by a concerted action from residents across Bridge and Stoke Park, spontaneously organising.  There is the Stoke Green Baptist church and Saint Mary Stoke which have great outreach services to people more deprived than you would find on Corder Road, which if we are going to get picky about this is closer to the area which Dame Bryony represents.  And this is not to mention such groups from allotment holders, social clubs, Pentecostal churches and Neighbourhood watch groups that do a great deal of good in Bridge.

These groups are ignored by that sort of dismissal.  Now building a doctor’s surgery may be a stretch but just because we do not have the most expensive houses in Ipswich does not mean that we are incapable of organising ourselves.  We need help, not direction.

If you want to insult us go and do it to our faces and in your leaflets, not to a hall of useless, overpaid, overpromoted and spendthrift public sector middle managers up in Manchester who got us in this mess in the first place.

There have been a few changes to the Wherstead Road Residents Association. Fred Smy, who has done a wonderful job over the last few years and has been a strong voice for his community has stood down as chairman and Des Pawson, who has been very active in the noise action group, is the new chairman.

There’s the Annual General Meeting of the Wherstead Road Residents Association. It’s tonight at the Orwell Yacht Club at 7.30. It’s members only.

Sorry for the short notice.  I got this through from Ipswich Buses:

Alan Pilbeam, MD of First is doing a presentation to the Ipswich Transport Society tonight at Bridge Ward Social Club in Austin St, at 1930. Public can attend for an entrance fee of £2.50
 
I will be there (although I’m coming from London so this will be at the mercy of the trains).  There should also be a couple of people from Wherstead Road who want to talk about the curtailing of Route 66.  If you’re coming then please email me at james@bridgeward.org.uk or find me at the meeting.

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 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.

Since the Route 66 bus service has been discontinued Wherstead Road has had to make do with village services going into Ipswich town center.  This has caused a number of problems:

• Infrequent services – one an hour if you’re lucky
• Unreliable services not keeping with timetables
• Few seats by the time the busses get to Wherstead Road
• More cars on the road
• No disabled access on the tiny busses

This has got to stop.  It may be hard to get money out of the government, especially as Chris Mole is now the minister for transport, but this can’t go on.