My week ahead 10 - 17 June 2013

Monday 10 June – 6pm, Labour campaigning- East Ipswich

Tuesday 11 June – 6pm, East Ipswich Housing Panel

Thursday 13 June – 4pm, Meeting at SCC about proposals for Rushmere Hall School
6pm – Ipswich Borough Council Scrutiny meeting

Friday 14 June – 4pm, Pearl Izumi Cycle Tour series, Ipswich town centre

Saturday 16 June - 10am, Labour campaigning, North West Ipswich

This week has been both satisfying and difficult – the good part was being able to inform residents that their bus service (22 and 31) were not to be lost. The first cuts by the Tory run Suffolk County Council are starting to leak out (no mention in any Tory election leaflet) and subsidies to bus routes are one of the first cuts to hit Ipswich. The good news is that the 22 and 31 will be replaced by a new service – the 39 – though it does cease working earlier in the afternoon as it then moves to the County run school bus service later in the afternoon. I will continue to both fight with residents against these Tory cuts and also work with the Borough Council and Ipswich Buses to try and help in areas where a bus service is lost.

The frustrating part has been dealing with residents’ concerns about the building of the new supermarket on the ‘Golden Key’ site on Woodbridge Rd. Chaos is the best way to describe what Rushmere residents woke to on Monday morning. The traffic jams and chaos were not acceptable. Fortunately our new Labour County Councillor was onto the task straight away and managed to get the County Council to change part of the road layout.

We now have a further 6 weeks of this chaos on one of the town’s main arterial routes! We (Ipswich Borough Council) did turn down the planning application because of traffic concerns – Monday was just yet one more example of where we (and residents) were right. Pity the Government Inspector did not listen – or visit the site during term time!

But to finish on a positive note, was a pleasure to visit the Beverley/Whitby Rd Community 'Front garden' sale today - after the success of the 'Big Lunch' held on Brunswick Recreation Ground last week, it is nice to know that we live in a ward with a real community feel.

Road safety in Whitby Road , Ipswich

Whitby /Beverley Road News

Over the last month a number of residents have been in contact about installing white lines at the Beverley Road/Whitby Road junction.

Give way lines are not always needed on residential streets. However, at this junction it is not as obvious who has right of way and with the proximity of the junction to Sidegate Primary School, the road safety concerns raised by residents have been considered.

Sandra Gage, one of our local campaigners, and myself approached the council highways department to ask that new give way lines were introduced at the Beverley Road/Whitby Road junction. Last week those lines were painted onto the roads. I am sure this will help improve road safety for not only residents but also the young children and their parents who walk along Whitby Road.

Sandra has also brought to my attention the need for more road safety measures at both the Khartoum/Woodbridge Rd junction and the Leopold/Rushmere Road junction. We have approached the council to see what we can do in those streets.