No Credit due!

Back from Budapest and straight into a Full Council meeting, the agenda was short but there were two motions being put to council.

As is usual at Full Council before the meeting a briefing is held for all councillors on a topical subject, this week it was a talk on the Ipswich Credit Union. With the rise of the pay day money lenders, it is important that councillors area ware of the Credit Union and the services they provide as we see a rise in the number of our constituents who need come to us seeking financial advice.

Disappointingly, though 18 Labour councillors attended, there were no Tory or Lib Dem councillors present. When I tweeted this, I was accused of a taking a low shot as a Tory activist informed me that all the Tory councillors were at work!! He was wrong, as their absence was due to them attending a group meeting – you would have thought (as they had plenty of pre-warning about the Credit Union talk) that they would have arranged it a different time.

Once the meeting started we had very few questions from the opposition, with for once the Lib Dems taking the tile for ‘pointless question of the week’ when Cllr Lockington asked about who was responsible for the fences in Ipswich Cemetery – why she had to ask that at Full Council was beyond most of us in attendance, as was tweeted later were the fences damaged by the Lib Dems always sitting on them!

The two motions were on the Government plan to toll the new A14 and about the closure of HMRC Valuation Office in Ipswich. For once there was all party support for a motion, with all sides critical of the plan to toll the A14. With the majority of the Tory MP’s in Suffolk also now against tolling the road, you do wonder why the Government are to continue with the plan. Maybe to help with this show of solidarity, no mention was made about the Tory County Council voting to still contribute a million pounds of our money towards the cost of the new road – strange also that when it went to the County Council the Lib Dems supported the Tories but this week Inga voted with Labour. I wonder if she has raised her concerns with Nick Clegg

This show of unity soon vanished when we went onto the second motion about the closure of the valuation office, Cllr John Cook gave a powerful speech when proposing the motion but instead of a reply from the Tory leader, Chris Stewart we had the usual anti Gordon Brown rant from John Carnall, he blamed everything on Gordon, no mention that it was an international financial meltdown. The only thing he did not blame our man from Kirkcaldy for was the storm last week, but I am sure he wanted to! We then had a number of comments from both sides with the Tory Nadia Cenci feeling she had to say something even if it did not seem to add to the debate. But after allowing former leader John Carnall to reply to the motion, Chris Stewart did feel he should speak and said that if something is not being used or not needed it should close, strange after his deputy Cllr Vickery had earlier asked a question about the partial closure of sports centres – does he now think if they are not being used they should be closed?

Both motions were passed and the meeting closed, though the Tory Group did seem more united, having a group meeting just before Full Council did not seem to have helped make them any more effective than previously – well at least this time we did not have three of them walking out! Then again as one left early and three did not attend the meeting, if any had walked out the Lib Dems with two councillors may have become the official party of opposition!

No Toll Tax on Suffolk

At last nights Ipswich Borough Full Council meeting, councillors unanimously backed a motion proposed by Labour Council Leader, Councillor David Ellesmere, in opposing the Government proposals to toll the A14.

In moving the motion, which welcomed improvements to the A14, but rejected tolls, David described the toll proposals as a tax on jobs in Ipswich and Suffolk. He criticized the government for its failure to understand that the A14 improvements represented more than a bypass for Cambridge, but had wider implications along the route of the A14, but especially for the economy of Suffolk.

David's position received cross party support with all councillors voting in favour.

The full text of the motion was:

This Council notes the Government’s recent announcement of its proposals for the upgrade of the A14 Trunk Road between Cambridge and Huntingdon.

This Council believes that there is a need to upgrade this important transport route, this Council is extremely concerned about the economic impact the proposed toll charge would have on Ipswich, Suffolk and especially at the Port of Felixstowe, given the lack of a viable alternative route for road users who do not want to use the toll road.

This Council resolves to oppose the proposed tolling of the A14 and to support Suffolk Chamber of Commerce’s “No Toll Tax on Suffolk” campaign.

It is a pity that the Tories and Lib Dems did not support the motion put forward by our own Rushmere Cllr, Sandra Gage and the County Labour Group at the Suffolk County Council meeting last week - and that they voted to still give £1 Million pounds of Suffolk money towards the building of the Toll Road. They seem to be the only groups not fully behind the work of the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, even Mt Gummer has got behind the campaign (but like Dan Pioulter does not seem to be that vocal in his oppostion to the Toll Tax)

Inga Lockington, who is both a Lib Dem Cllr on the Borough and on the County Council voted with us yesterday but did she support the County Lib Dems stance last week?

My week ahead- 19- 25 December

Monday 19 December 2pm - North East Ipswich Partnership Meeting
4pm - Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm - Political debate on ICR Radio
7.30pm - Labour Group Xmas dinner


Seem to be packing in all my work into one day!

Last week we had the last Full Council meeting of the year, we did wonder how the Tories and Lib Dems would vote when it came to adopting the Council Core Strategy and Policies Development Plan. I was quite amazed that they voted with Labour! But there was far more to this agenda item that the unanimous vote. Lib Dem Cllr Richard Atkins attacked the Tories for the NIMBY attitude that had plagued the writing of the plan. Cllr Goldsmith the Tory Cllr from Castle Hill did not rise to the bait but did speak on behalf of the Northern Fringe Group. Lib Dem Inga Lockington also spoke and maybe Richard Atkins should have also attacked some of his own party who have acted in a NIMBY way towards the development of the Northern Fringe including Cllr Lockington.

Even now the plan has been approved; I am sure that when planning permission is being sought for the area North of Valley Road we will still have a number of Tories and Lib Dems looking to refuse permission to build in this part of town.
Will be interesting to read Tory/Lib Dem leaflets over the next few months (if they deliver any!) as they both seemed to be anti any development on the Northern Fringe in their leaflets in the St Margaret’s by-election.

The Council meeting also looked at changes to Polling stations in Ipswich, the Tories tried to keep a polling district in Bixley that is not only the smallest in the town but the polling station is situated outside the Borough. As no Tories had turned up for the two Working group meetings on polling stations there was not much sympathy for them.

We also debated setting up Area Committee’s, all seemed to agree that Forums were not working but the Tories were also not keen on area committees, and in the end the Tories and Lib Dem Ken Bates, abstained - the Tories seem to becoming the abstain party - something that Tory Gavin Maclure is not happy about.

After all the debating and arguing the most significant statement of the meeting was when Cllr John Mowles, our Housing spokesman declared that Labour run Ipswich Borough Council is planning to start building council houses again in Ipswich. This development should help a number of young families as they seek their first home in the town.

John Carnall - Tory embarrassment

Last night I attended the Annual Council Meeting in Ipswich, the main purpose of the evening is to elect a new Mayor, and though most of the evening is about pageantry and tradition part of the occasion does involve politics as a new Leader and an executive are also elected..
Gavin McClure, a former Ipswich Tory Councillor attended the night as a guest and has a different take of the night to me. In his latest blog post, Gavin sings the praises of Tory Leader John Carnall.According to Gavin, "Cllr John Carnall started his tenure as Conservative leader in terrific form. When he challenged a constitutional point regarding the election of the Deputy Leader"

Now I thought Carnall was just trying to score cheap points and ended up making a fool of himself, after the meeting was over I found myself speaking to one of the invited guests. The guest informed me that hew saw himself as a Conservative supporter but that after the antics of John Carnall at the meeting, if he lived in Ipswich he would vote Labour!

He said it was obvious to most of the audience, that John Carnall had marked his copy of the agenda at item 5, and that he had prepared his comments and point of order but as the guest said, if he had noted that item 5 was not correct, why had he not informed the Chief Executive and the Council Officers earlier in the week? Cllr Carnall was correct, in that agenda item 5 was wrong but all he did by pointing it out at the meeting rather than before hand was embarrass the officers and at the same time attempt to embarrass the Borough of Ipswich.

From speaking to the guest, it was obvious all he had done was embarrass himself and make himself and his Tory group look like poor losers.

I can understand why he decided not to take his place on the executive - even if I do not agree with him but (as Gavin should understand) he was letting down the Ipswich electorate in not taking the Chair of Scrutiny, it is recommended 'best practice' for Scrutiny to be chaired by the opposition. Gavin actually improved the running of scrutiny during his tenure as chairman of that committee so I find it hard to understand why he supports Cllr Carnall on his refusal to take the Chair.

Where I do agree with Gavin, his on his opinion of the Lib Dems, on the first vote on item 6, they voted with Labour, when the Mayor had to put it to a vote the second time, they abstained ( I say thay abstained, Cllr Inga Lockington seemed to vote for, against and abstain - all at the same time!)As Gavin states, 'they look both ways again'.

The guest was certainly not impressed with John Carnall, wonder what he would have thought if he had known that he had also refused to allow David Goldsmith the former Deputy Mayor to carry on it that role? David had said he was happy to carry on (Jane Chambers, the outgoing Lib Dem Mayor should have become Deputy, but had lost her seat) but Carnall said the decision was up to the Tory Group not David and he/they had decided they were not even going to take up this ceremonial post let alone a seat on executive or Chair of Scrutiny.

Liz Harsant the outgoing Council Leader had some words of advice for the new Labour Leader of the Council, she would have been far better off trying to give her former deputy leader some advice on civic responsibility. John Carnall not only embarrassed himself, the Tory Group but also the Borough of Ipswich - his antics last night do not give me much hope that he will be the critical friend, that an effective opposition should be.

Lock up your books, the Yanks are coming!

The Suffolk library saga seems to get more confusing by the day, but what is clear to see is the strength of the opposition to the plans that the Tory led Suffolk County Council have for our libraries.

To be fair to the County Council it is not just the future of libraries that is confusing the public, the whole 'New Strategic Direction' seems to be a mish mash of ideas.

But it is the future of the Suffolk Library service where confusion reigns supreme. Judy Terry (our own Rushmere Ward Tory councillor) has called for more responses to the library consultation, now she has had over 1,300 responses - which I think is great, but maybe the problem is that the Suffolk public are not giving Judy and her Tory cronies the answers that they were after! It is obvious that most responses have called for the County Council to continue to run the Suffolk library service.

On the excellent James' Blog, you can read a more in depth look at how it is quite plain to see that they Tories always had a long term plan for the libraries that did not include them continuing to be run by the County Council or even saved by local groups or run by Parish and District Councils.

We now have come to the position where the County Council are now seeming to rule out any sort of conversation with any group that just wants to save libraries and leave them in the control of the County Council. The reason why? It seems we are well on the way to having the Suffolk Library service run by American firm LSSI.

We first heard from Judy Terry that LSSI and one other unnamed group were interested but the very next day we are told that Suffolk County Council had met LSSI four times already. It seems that the consultation was a waste of time from the start.

I am sure no other group has even had more than one meeting with the county, but though we have had Ben Gummer MP threaten to chain himself to Rosehill Library and Dr Poulter is intending to join a 24 hour 'read in; at a Suffolk Library this weekend, we have had no open criticism of the way the County seems to have already decided that LSSI are the way ahead.

Will either of the Ipswich MP's join the planned Suffolk march against the the Suffolk plans for the Library service? I know that Ben Gummer visited Rosehill last week, but he seemed to forget to sign the petition. If LSSI take over Rosehill does that mean he will not see him pretending to be David Blaine in Tomline Road?

Again for all those interested in the future of the Suffolk Library service, I urge you to take a look at James' Blog

These are some of the examples of ' saying one thing but meaning another' that James has unearthed (all from the mouth of Judy Terry!)

'However, should responses to the consultation prove disappointing, it is imperative that we make the necessary savings, meaning that we may have to close 39 libraries.'

Then the next sentence is: 'The prospects are exciting for a library revolution, and I look forward to hearing your views.'

Now where does this leave 'Big Society?' - or has Mr Cameron forgot to tell us it is now called 'Big Private Company?'

The County do not seem keen to talk to the various 'save Libraries' groups, but I thought that is what 'Big Society' was all about - I always knew that most Tory Councillors either did not understand 'Big Society' or if they understood it, were dead against it - well here in Suffolk they seem to have totally blown it out of the water - and an American private company is likely to be offered the chance to run the libraries rather than any 'friends' groups.

Now again it seems rather strange, that in the local paper when we have all these stories about LSSI, that we have not heard from Lib Dem Cllr Inga Lockington (who wanted to start a 'friends' group at the Westbourne Library and Tory Cllr Stewart who chaired the public meeting about the future of the Rosehill Library.

Maybe it is because it is their fellow coalition Borough Councillor, Judy Terry who is leading the way in destroying the Suffolk Library Service.

I hope many of you can join the 'Save Suffolk Libraries' march in April- wonder if Gummer and Poulter will turn up?

UNITED - against the Tory Suffolk County Council cuts.

As I made my way to Endeavour House in Ipswich this morning I was concerned that the blizzard type conditions would lead to the Rally against the cuts to Suffolk County Council becoming a damp squib. But Jeremy Pembroke, ex banker and now leader of the Tory run Suffolk County Council you do have ability! Ability to inspire people to give up a free Saturday morning, brave the snow and protest about the savage cuts planned by the Tories, yourself and Andrea Hill.




A comment on one of my previous posts, declared that the rally would be hijacked by the SWP and the far left, that never happened, the march was made up of, council workers, their families, Labour Party members, unions (FBU, UNITE, Unison, CWU, NUT and others) and students. The march was well organised and the police not only had no problem marshaling it but were also thanked for their help at the end of the rally. No surprise in one way as we were also campaigning to save their jobs as they also face the Condem cuts.

It was not hijacked by the SWP but it seems that the Suffolk Lib Dems and those from St Margarets in Ipswich have allied themselves with our protest. Now we welcome support from all the community in this campaign to secure the services that Suffolk people deserve. But the Lib Dems have a number of questions to ask themselves, how can they protest against the cuts in Suffolk but be prepared to support Clegg and Cable as they prop up the Tory Government and to make it worse in Ipswich, 3 of their County Councillors are in a coalition with the Tories, and supporting such acts as selling off our bus service. The St Margaret's Lib Dems were even giving out their focus newsletter on the Cornhill from a table that was also collecting signatures to support our campaign against these Tory cuts, but the same Lib Dem's seem to forget that Inga Lockington is a portfolio holder in the Ipswich Condem council. You can't have it both ways. Kathy Pollard the Suffolk Lib Dem leader was heckled at the rally, and I am sure she is being very honest in her support for our campaign but I am afraid that whilst Clegg and Cable in Westminster and Cann, Lockington and Chambers at Grafton House in Ipswich support Tory administrations she will not be taken seriously.




Best part of the day? There were a number - the 'Who ate all the pies? - Jeremy' song from the FBU and the young students from UCS and Northgate who spoke so passionately about the the Condem plans for their futures (something Kathy did not mention in her speech) and on a selfish point, the brilliant turn out from the Ipswich Labour Party, and the opportunity to be photographed with the branch banner, a banner my own father had carried ion the early 70's.






The Labour Party banner today outside the New Wolsey




The banner in the 70's with my late Father, Peter Ross


A great day for the Labour movement in Ipswich - now to build on that consensus of support to put pressure on Gummer, Poulter and the local Condem councillors.

Ipswich Parks - update

I have had a fantastic response from residents in Rushmere Ward Ipswich after I delivered a leaflet asking for residents views on Brunswick Road Park.

The overwhelming view of residents was for the park to remain locked at night but many of us are keen on more flexable timings.

The Ipswich Labour Party has also distributed a similar leaflet around Alexandra and Holywells Park. Rather than being thanked for getting the views of the public, I have been accused by the Lib Dem portfolio holder of scaremongering. It is true that the portfolio holder has preformed a U turn at Full Council and declared that parks will remain closed at night but it was obvious from the last Executive meeting that many of her Tory/Lib Dem colleagues are still keen to make cuts to the Park Service and keep them open 24/7.

Even her fellow Lib Dem councilor from her own ward wants Christchurch Park to remain open his comment at Executive was that his residents had "strange views" and that he would respond to the consultation by stating that the parks should not be locked.

Consultation - well Inga Lockington states that the Parks 'Vision' was only what it says on the tin- a vision not a policy and that the policy would be produced after consultation. But consultation with who? If it was not for Labour and the 'Friends of the Parks' groups no one would have known about the consultation. There are no signs or notices in the three parks I have been in over the last 4 days - Christchurch, Holywells and Brunswick Road. There is not even a mention of the Parks Consultation under 'Consultations' on the Ipswich Borough Council website.

So I ask you all to send in your views on the Parks 'vision' to the council. It is obvious from the Executive that the Portfolio Holder may not be able to deliver on her promise to keep the parks locked at night.

The vision can be found here. and you can comment by sending an E mail to: parks.services@ipswich.gov.uk

Leave Ipswich Park's open?

Cllr Alasdair Ross on his local park - Brunswick Road

Many of you may have heard in the local Ipswich Press recently that the Tory/Lib Dem run Ipswich Borough Council had decided without any consultation with the public, to open all the parks in Ipswich 24 hours a day.

Some Ipswich parks are left open all day already and some cannot be secured but Christchurch Park, Holywells Park and our own Rushnmere park of Brunswick Road are some of those that are currently locked at night.

There was such an outcry led by the Ipswich Labour Party, local residents and the local paper that Inga Lockington the Lib Dem portfolio holder for the Parks, announced at Full Council that she had changed her mind and that the parks will now still stay locked at night.

You may then say why are we still campaigning on this subject. A number of reasons, the statement to the press only mentioned Christchurch and Holywells Park so Brunswick Road and Newbury Road may still be in danger of being left open. Secondly Inga still has to find savings of £600,000, so it is important that a Park Rangers service is still maintained and that we do not just find that they are replaced by members of the 'Big Society'.

If you wish to look at the Council 'Vision' for Parks and open Spaces in Ipswich you can find it here.

It is important that we protect our parks and open spaces, a much loved part of the town by all our community. It is quite hypocritical of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition to take the plaudits as Christchurch Park wins it's third Green Flag award at the same time set out a vision that would have left this park unprotected at night and also seen a big reduction in the Park Ranger service throughout the town.



A number of residents have asked about setting up a 'Friends of Brunswick Road Park' group. If you support such a n idea , please feel Free to contact me: alasdairross@hotmail.com