Do Ipswich Tories really want new homes built?

Tory bloggers have been very quick today to pick up on the interview our local paper did with departing Tory councillor for Rushmere, Judy Terry.

In her interview she was very critical of our Labour administration and blamed us for the lack of house building over the last few years. What will not surprise many Rushmere and Ipswich residents is that she left our some very important details.

Only one councillor spoke against the housing development planned for the St Clement’s site at the Ipswich Planning committee. That councillor was Alan Murray the Tory County Councillor for Bixley and a SCC Cabinet member.
Only one councillor suggested that IBC purchase the St Clement’s site – but not for much needed housing, but to turn it into a park. That councillor was John Carnell, the Tory Borough councillor for Bixley.

Cllr Terry also failed to mention that the development of the Colchester Rd Fire Station site almost fell through after Tory run SCC dramatically raised their 106 funding requirements from the original amount quoted in the pre-development brief. Some may have found it strange that Cllr Terry was involved in the planning committee for that development when the sale of the site (with the money going to SCC of which she was a Cabinet member) depended on planning permission being gained.

Now we do know that Judy Terry does suffer from memory lapses, she did forget she had written an ‘Ipswich Flyer’ column when she was quoted from it at Full Council and then her most famous memory lapse came when she forgot/denied she had taken her fellow Tory Cabinet member, Colin Noble to see the prefabs in Inverness Rd. Of course that is when she was more interested tearing down people’s homes and replacing with a care home and housing.

So now we have Judy Terry – the Tory who wants more houses built and last year when she was up for election she was Judy Terry – the Tory who wanted to hold a referendum on the Northern Fringe development (paid for by council money).
So where do the Ipswich Tories (and Lib Dems for that matter) stand on the Northern Fringe development – maybe Cllr Cenci – their deputy leader can answer that?

Their Tory MP seems to be concerned that the housing will not be of a high standard of design (not that he seems that concerned about the design of the new Chantry High School)

So if Ipswich Tories are so concerned about the lack of housing being built in the town, come out with a statement supporting the plan to build on the Northern Fringe and help us put pressure on the Tory County Council and National Government to contribute to the development by helping with the building of transport and educational infrastructure that is needed to make the plan a success.

Another sign of the dis-unity in the Suffolk Tory Party?

Yesterday Len Jacklin achieved a great win in Oulton Ward in Waveney (Lowestoft). Winning the seat with a majority of over a 100 from the Tories and UKIP coming a distant third.

I was able to get up to Oulton last week with the Suffolk Labour leader, Sandy Martin and was very impressed with the campaigning – most days they had three sessions and must have spoken to the majority of Oulton. At the time of my visit they had seen little of the Tory team but a number of UKIP leaflets had appeared. They did not even have the legal imprint on them so does make me wonder about their electoral ability, especially when after they lost in Thetford they said it was because Oulton was their target seat!

The day we were in Oulton, the Tory leaflet was also distributed and showed the Tory candidate talking to local residents in two pictures - well not really local residents, one was a picture of her talking to her husband and the other to her agent!

Yesterday, leading Suffolk Tory Colin Noble was tweeting that he was out campaigning; getting the Tory vote out and I also heard that a number of other Suffolk County Councillors were drafted in. This last minute effort was probably helped by the fact that their leader, Mark Bee was also the Tory agent.

But it seems that help was to no avail and was probably swamped by the help Len gained from Labour teams from all over the region. Sandy Martin made a number of trips up the A12 to help and Rushmere Councillor Sandra Gage was there on Election Day which brings me to the thrust of the post – did Mark Bee manage to get any help from the Ipswich Tories?

Alan Murray the only Tory County Councillor (and a Cabinet member) may have visited but I am sure that no Borough councillor or Tory activist managed to get past Kesgrave!

It shows one of the fundamental differences between the local Labour Party in Ipswich and the Tory Party. We are not only united in Ipswich behind David Ellesmere but also believe it is only right that we go out and help our Labour colleagues in Suffolk, from Lowestoft to Cornard, Hadleigh to Sudbury and even beyond the county borders to Thetford and Colchester.

This lack of unity in Suffolk Tory circles does affect the way the the County treat Ipswich and its residents, the PR disaster that the Bishops Hill lights scheme is, just one example. So we have County Tories not interested in what happens in Ipswich- policy wise and Ipswich Tories not willing to go beyond Copdock or Kesgrave to help their Tory friends.

No wonder a leading Essex Tory MP warns that their party is haemorrhaging members, only this week I bumped into a former senior Ipswich Tory councillor who informed me that they had left the party after all the in-fighting – and hinted that if Judy Terry has stayed on as the Chair of the local Tories they would have probably seen membership go down to their lowest ever total!

So low that they may even have to ask Kevin Algar to be a candidate again?