My next 4 weeks ahead - 2nd April - 3rd May 2012

My regular week ahead post, will take a break for the next 4 weeks as I campaign to be re-elected as the Labour councillor for Rushmere Ward, Ipswich.

Most of any spare time I have will now be spent knocking on doors and delivering leaflets, not just in my own ward but all over Ipswich.

There will be some time away from the election with a visit next week to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. This has become an annual pilgrimage as I go to pay my respects to those who I served with but who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

I will also escape to the hills for a few days as I take a group of teenagers off to Mid Wales for the Duke of Edinburgh Gold award expedition. But other than those two visits I will be spending as much time as possible campaigning in Ipswich. I know I have much more to learn about being a councillor but I also feel I have plenty to offer to the people of Ipswich.

In 2008 I won (on the third attempt)with a majority of just 13! It is now up to me to persuade the residents of Rushmere Ward that I am the right person to be their elected representative, living in the ward helps me understand their concerns but finding solutions to their issues is the real test of a councillor.

Promoted by John Cook c/o Ipswich labour Party, 33 Silent Steet, Ipswich, IP1 1TF on behalf of Alasdair Ross and the Labour Party Candidates, . Hosted (printed) by Blogger.com (Google Inc) of 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.

A visit to the National Memorial Arboretum

Last weekend, my wife and myself travelled to Staffordshire, a nice day in Lichfield was followed on the Sunday to a visit to the National Memorial aaboretum at Alrewas in Staffordshire. the occasion was the dedication service of the Royal Green Jackets Memorial, which was to be unveiled by Field Marshall Bramall, over 1,000 most ex members of the Green Jackets were there, and we finished off with a march past by "us" veterans- then to the beet tent to meet mates and rekindle lost friendships.

Field Marshal Bramall

I would recommend a visit to the Arboretum to anyone- not just Green Jackets or ex servicemen- the layout is fantastic and the National Memorial to all servicemen who have died since 1945 is a fantastic monument- a real valuable legacy of the millennium.- go and see for yourselves- you will not be disappointed.

General Balfour leads the Green Jacket veterans on the march past