My week ahead, 23 - 29 November 2015

Monday 23 November, 4pm – Culture Portfolio meeting

6pm – Labour campaigning

Tuesday 24 November, 5pm – Culture/events meeting

Saturday 28 November, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

Sunday 29 November, 10am – Cyclo-Cross championship

Another week of meetings as we wait to hear what further cuts George  Osborne will impose on us, but we have already heard this week that County Councils will be able to raise council tax by a further 2% to help cover the cost of social care, wonder what will Tory run Suffolk will do? They have promised no council tax rise in both 2015 and 2016.

Then again not sure many of us have any confidence in the Suffolk leadership as one of their Cabinet members decided enough was enough and packed it in, what was interesting was that she stated she was not happy with the direction of the national party as well as closer to home in Suffolk. Colin Noble must now be concerned that he will not be able to hold onto the leadership of the Tory Group, not that you would know from his twitter feed (or the twitter feeds from SCC or SCC Cabinet) that anything was wrong!

But it also has not been a great week for the Labour Party, but we must stay united and keep fighting but I am concerned of the direction we are taking – but all is not lost and in Ipswich we are determined to work hard alongside our many new members to win another electoral victory in May.

But we must sort out our differences – but in meetings and with debate not on the pages of Tory supporting papers or via the world of twitter.

What I will say is that we could become the most middle class the Labour Party has ever felt, more a party of protects, more like an off shoot of the Green Party than a party of not just opposition but a party that wants to get back into power to make the changes that are need to help all of us in this country.

I expect our leaders to get a grip and drive us forward, do not write of our chances in 2020, still plenty of time to get our cat together.

Championship Cycling in Chantry Park, Ipswich

British National Cyclo-Cross Championship Sunday 8th January 2012
Chantry Park, Ipswich

Today I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Cyclo-Cross Championships which were held in the town.




I was also honoured to be given the task of handing out the medals to the winners of the women's race,




Even I get on the podium!

Local interest came in the form of Hugo Robinson who won his second GB Junior title, the is was also great for Steve Grimwood, of Elmy Cycles in Ipswich as Hugo rides for his team and it is Steve who has been the main person in getting not only the British Championships in Ipswich but we are also getting the European Championships coming to Ipswich in November.

The three highlights of the day (on top of the win for Hugo)
1. Witnessing the great Roger Hammond (in possibly his last race in Cyclo-Cross)
2. Meeting and listening to the commentary of the legendary Hugh Porter
3. The finish to the men's race where GB Mountain biker Liam Killeen fell at the last serious bend in a wheel to wheel tussle with eventual winner, Ian Field.



The legendary Hugh Porter with local lad- Hugo Robinson

Roll on November

Happy New Year and My week ahead, 2 - 8 January 2012

Wednesday 4th January 2012, 4pm - Area Committee Training, Grafton House

Saturday 7th January 10.30am - Campaigning in East Ipswich

Sunday 8th January 10am - British Nation Cyclo-Cross Championships at Chantry Park.

A quiet week politically (Christmas and football getting in the way!)

This week will see the start of training for councillors that will help ensure that the Area Committees are a success - interesting to see how many Tories attend the training!!

For many of us 2012 will all be about the Olympics and for those who can't wait till July, I urge you to join me at Chantry Park on Sunday (or Saturday) for the British National Cyclo-Cross Championships. Even better we have a chance of a local rider winning this prestigious event. Get along and cheer Hugo Robinson.

To have a look at what is involved have a look at the website or watch the video with Hugo testing the track.

Ip-Cross 2012 from Carl Thompson on Vimeo.

A vision for sport in Ipswich

As a councilor you do get invited to a number of events, you can't go to them all but I do feel it is my duty to attend as many as possible. As a great fan of all sport, I do try to attend as many sport events in Ipswich as possible. This week I went to town hall to help celebrate the announcement that Ipswich will host the 2012 European Cyclo-Cross Championship. the event will be held in Chantry Park.

The council and Team Ipswich have helped Ipswich get the event but most of the hard work has been done by local Cycling guru, Steve Grimwood.

The highlight of the launch event was the attendance of the BBC cycling commentator, Hugh Porter, who spoke about how proud he had been to commentate on the GB cycling golds at this years Olympics.

It is great news that we will host such a big event in 2012 and this along with the gymnastics centre likely to be used as an Olympic training venue by one of the competing nations are all feathers in the cap of the council and Team Ipswich.

But it did get me thinking- do we have a vision of where sport is going in Ipswich?

I remember as a school kid in Ipswich we had very few facilities in the town but an Officer at the council- Randal Bevan had a vision and with the Labour run Ipswich Borough Council was able to deliver, sports centres at Whitton, Maidenhall, Northgate, an athletics track at Northgate, Crown Pools, a cycle speedway track at Whitton and the Gymnastics centre at Gainsborough.

But now we seem to have promises of more facilities- a cycle velodrome was mentioned by Hugh Porter at this event but Cllr Judy Terry seems keen to make such announcements, as she did over a 50M pool for Portman Road but we never seem to see any concrete proposals. at the same time we have Broomhill Swimming Pool being refused a Lottery Grant, with the lack of council commitment being given as one of the reasons for the failure to get a grant.

At the same time Crown Pools is need of urgent repairs but all we get is statements in the press saying how keen they are on Broomhill, how a cycle velodrome will be built and so on.

What is needed is a proper plan for the provision of sport in Ipswich over the next 20 years, what new facilities will be built and what money will be spent on improving and maintaining present facilities.

I am afraid that all we get at the moment from Judy Terry are some great idea's but with little chance of any being pushed through. Maybe if Mrs Terry can't deliver she should take up cycling or as Norman Tebbit would have told her- "get on your bike!"