Letting down our soldiers?

Last night at the Ipswich Borough Council meeting, our Labour Group put forward a motion asking for the Government to consider scrapping the 1% pay cap on Public Service workers, Cllr Bryony Rudkin proposed the motion and it was seconded by Sandra Gage, both commented on how hard some public workers were finding it hard to get by with some nurses now having to rely on food banks.

Even members of the Tory Cabinet are now considering supporting the removal of the pay cap but currently the Chancellor is holding firm on his strict stance. The election result in June plus what their own residents are telling them has caused a number of Tory MPs to consider their own position on the wage cap. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor may not be happy with some of his MPs wavering but he would have been much more comfortable with the response of the Ipswich Tory Group.

Cllr Harsant stated she did understand the hardship that public service workers were bearing but she would still vote against the motion because she felt it was better for the country, I do not agree with her but she at least made a decent attempt at explaining her position, the same could not be said of the other Tories who spoke.

Many said that the current economic situation (all down to Gordon Brown, according to them) meant we could not afford a rise above 1% for anyone - none could explain how it was OK for some of them to vote for a much larger rise for the Tory leaders on the County council last week! Some of the other comments were far more outrageous - Cllr Carnall decided to focus on tuition fees and Corbyn (not sure what that had to do with the wage cap) but when he did speak on the motion he described the contributions by Cllrs Gage and Rudkin as 'sob stories'.

Many of their front bench seemed to enjoy informing us all that public service workers would not get a pay cut, Nadia Cenci stated she would like to give all soldier pay of £100,000 but still would not vote for the lifting of a 1% pay cap on our armed forces.

Cllr Phillips indicated that independent pay review boards settled public service pay - he was almost right, in the case of the Armed Services the Government just ignores the findings and pay review boards for other public service workers are often told that they can't recommend pay rises of over 1% before they start. So much for any form of independence.

As Bryony Rudkin later commented, the mask had slipped and the 'nasty party' was back with a bang. By this time, I had decided to speak not only because of the anger I now felt after listening to the Tories speak but also by the hypocrisy of some who stayed silent.

Robin Vickery is both a Borough and a County Councilor and has often spoken up for the Armed Services, no real surprise as he is a dedicated member of the British Legion and holds a senior post within the Suffolk British Legion. Earlier in the meeting he had asked a question about Suffolk Day where he had lamented the lack of floral displays at the recent event, his last comment had been that he had hoped their would be a better show when we remembered the battle of Passchendaele on Monday., not a surprising comment due to his role in the British Legion, but when it came to voting for a motion to ask the Tory Government to lift the 1% wage cap on our current soldiers, sailors and airmen he refused but only a week earlier he had voted for a 15% pay rise for Tory County leader, Colin Noble.

As a senior member of the British Legion I would have expected him not only to vote for but speak up for any motion that supported our current armed forces. I had earlier spoken to say that a 1% pay rise would not have stopped me from wanted to be a member of the army but this Tory Government is not just asking soldiers to take home just a 1% rise it is actually reducing their weekly pay packet as they look to introduce the 'Armed Forces Future Accommmodation Model' - a plan that is so flawed that serving senior officers are even going public in their criticism of the proposed scheme. This would mean that some young soldiers could actually see an 8-9% pay cut. But this did not seem to sway Cllr Vickery who still voted against the motion. Maybe now is the time that Cllr Vickery looked at his position within the Suffolk British Legion.

The next 5 weeks ahead - up till 5 May 2016

The next few weeks will be spent mainly in North East Ipswich campaigning hard for the local Labour Party - so there will be no  'My week ahead' posts till after election day. (Some of you may cheer!)

For some of us the end of the election will just signal a short pause before we start campaigning for a vote to remain in Europe.

So from Tuesday (most evenings) till May 5th, you will see us out campaigning, most of you know that we campaign all year round and you would have spoken to us on our Saturday door knocking sessions but in Rushmere Ward, we may see the 'Lesser Spotted Tory' - there has been only one unconfirmed sighting since last May! So much for Mr Gummer speaking to residents, not even sure he lives in Ipswich anymore.

Ipswich Borough Council, I believe have done a great job in protecting front line services, in the face of severe cuts by a Tory (and at first Tory/Lib Dem) Government but also with the added handicap of having a Tory County council who are also intent on privatising all their services. A Tory County council that currently has no Tory County Councillors, who appointed a Cabinet Member for Ipswich, who has yet to turn up to a single Ipswich Area Committee even though he was invited and the Tory Leader 'I want to be Mayor of East Anglia' Colin Noble asked for the dates to be sent to him again.

Fact is the Tories do not care about Ipswich and will not even attempt tp pretend they do until about 2019, when Mr Gummer will suddenly crawl back out of the woodwork, move back to the town and attempt to get the Wet Dock Crossing named after him!

At the last North East Ipswich Area Committee, the Tory Councillor for Bixley could not think of one good thing this Government or Tory County Council have done for this part of the town - he had to mention the Wet Dock Crossing as if it was great news for North East Ipswich residents - getting the Tory County Council to sort out the daily congestion in Argyle Street or get a new Primary School built in East Ipswich would have been far more useful!

Good way to help save Ipswich 'Park & Ride'

The two Ipswich 'Park & Ride' schemes in Ipswich are under threat from cuts to be implemented by the Tory County Council - they mention under use, well hope they read the Ipswich Star today, in a great article by regular columnist, Lynne Mortimer she asks if all our County Councilors are taking full advantage of the 'Park & Ride' when they come to Ipswich to attend meetings.


As Colin Noble and all his Cabinet are from outside Ipswich, it would be a good way of backing the scheme plus reducing congestion (if only by a few cars ) in the town.


I guess that the answer may be none of them use the scheme as they have a free car park in the town! Maybe sell the car park and use the money to invest in our Fire service rather than cut it and at the same time help keep the 'Park & Ride' schemes.


Over to you Mr Noble and the Tory (non-Ipswich) Cabinet!

Tory run Suffolk still treat Ipswich as the poor relation

Tory run Suffolk do seem to have a real issue relating to Ipswich – their County Town. They work in in, travel to and through it but that seems to be the only real link they have.

No Ipswich County Councillor in the Tory Cabinet, but then again they only have one Tory County Councillor in the whole town and he walked away from his Cabinet post. So they appointed a member from outside the borough to represent our views.

But last night we saw yet another example of how little they seem bothered to interact with both Ipswich politicians and residents.

The County Council have held a number of budget consultation meetings throughout Suffolk, attendance has varied but number between 20 and 30 residents attending each meeting were the figures quoted.

On the 30^th November, Suffolk tweeted that they would be holding the last budget consultation in

Ipswich on the 9^th December at 4pm. No further tweets were issued, (surprising as in the summer we had an almost constant twitter update on what Tory leader Colin Noble was up to), we then had a small piece in the local paper and that was it for publicity.

I turned up to hear what was going to be said and found a room of empty seats- no public turned up, not surprising with so little publicity (they had not even told their own County Councillors) and holding it during the working day.

Taken last night at the meeting - a row each?

Eventually we had an audience of 6, one Lib Dem Cllr, 4 Labour councillors (including me) plus the Chief executive from the Borough.

The Tory Cabinet member responsible for Ipswich – Chris Hudson - did not even attend – then again he still has to show his face at any of our Area Committee meetings.

So we have the largest population in Suffolk but seem to get less attention from the ruling Tories than in a small Parish Council in West Suffolk!

Of course the Tory Cabinet may have had more important meetings to attend and as I checked my twitter feed, I saw that the Tory Cabinet twitter account was tweeting about the poor train service from London to Ipswich, complaining about dirty carriages and that top price had been paid for the ticket. They did not say if they or ‘us’ the council tax payer had paid for the ticket! Surprised to see them moaning about the trains as I thought Tory MPs Gummer, Patel and Smith had overseen a dramatic improvement in our rail service over the last 5 years! So it seems at least one Cabinet member was on their way back from a meeting in London - but where were the others?

So what did the Ipswich public miss? Quite a lot and it was not good news, for those setting the budget it seems that savings have to be made at ‘Ipswich Park & Ride’ and that could mean giving 6 months’ notice to the bus company and closing the facility. Savings from the savage cuts to the Fire service are in the budget, so it does make me wonder why they are even holding a public consultation on those planned cuts, also bad news for rural transport, schools and recycling.

Good news is that the training budget for councillors will be retained so that the Tory Cabinet can have further media training at a London Film Studio.

So the budget is bad news, the consultation a farce and the only thing that was confirmed was that Tory run Suffolk have very little interest in Ipswich and its residents! 

Wonder if the Tory MPs for Ipswich, Gummer and Poulter plus the Ipswich Tory leader, Nadia Cenci are happy with the way their Tory Party colleagues treat Ipswich?

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.

My week ahead, 4 - 10 October 2015

Monday 5 October, 6pm – Labour Group campaigning

7pm – Labour Executive

Thursday 8 October, 6pm – Area Committee Chairs meeting

Friday 9 October, 11am – Talk with students at Suffolk New College

Saturday 10 October, 10am – Labour campaigning in North East Ipswich

Busy week ahead and we are all checking our emails to hear what the latest on devolution plans for Suffolk (and Norfolk) with  Suffolk Tory leader, Colin Noble away in Manchester at the Conservative Party conference, it makes you wonder if much of what is being decided is taking place in Manchester rather than in Suffolk, Norfolk or Westminster – would also be interesting to hear what our Tory MPs think about the plans.

This week we will continue to campaign about the proposed family tax credit cuts, even a recent Tory Minister is saying that the plan should be delayed/changed but from what David Cameron spoke about on TV this morning, there seems little hope of him changing his mind, so it will be up to those Tory MPs who know that this latest Tory policy  will hurt many working families to vote with Labour and defeat this disgusting policy/

A Tory candidate in Ipswich has accused me of ‘cyber bullying’ but fails to mention the true facts and the accusation that I was not respecting our armed forces by not singing the national anthem. As the only two councillors in Ipswich to serve in the Armed Forces are both Labour – including myself, not sure they are in any position to lecture me.

My week ahead, 7 - 12 September 2015

Monday 7 September, 10am – Meeting with ActivLives
4pm – Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm – Campaigning in South West Ipswich

Saturday 12 September, 10am – Labour campaigning North East Ipswich
2pm – Tour of Britain arrives in Ipswich Town centre.

A few weeks ago I tweeted that I found it surprising that the Suffolk County Council used their official twitter feed to promote County Councillors own twitter account that would obviously be political. At Ipswich Borough Council this does not happen and it seems similar with Central Government.

I was pleased to get a reply from both the Tory leader of the council, Colin Noble and the County Council Press team. The council gave a satisfactory answer, Colin Noble also gave the same explanation but could not resist the opportunity to have a quick snipe at me.

It seemed the reason given for use of councillors twitter names was so that they became more known to their constituents, I was happy with this answer and just hoped that all councillors would be treated equally.

The Suffolk County Council held one of their ‘Listening to you’ events in the Ipswich Town centre on Saturday and well done to them for promoting the event by using the twitter accounts of the Ipswich based Labour County Councillors along with promoting the Tory leaders twitter account.

So you can imagine how disappointing it was to see on Saturday that in 6 Suffolk County Council tweets from the event, the only name mentioned (and only twitter account included) was that of Tory leader – Colin Noble – no mention of the Labour Councillors present ( even if they were in the photographs) does make you wonder if the County Council twitter feed is there to promote the county or just its Tory leader? Certainly seemed strange that all the Labour Councillors seemed to be ignored?

They may have decided not to mention Ipswich Councillors names when the only Tory County Councilor in the town (I am told) was not present at the event.

The other story that is of much more importance is the continuing humanitarian crisis spreading over Europe as Syrian refugees make their way towards Germany – more on my view on this issue here – but it does seem now that even Tory Ministers including the Chancellor are stating we should do more, the only people who still seems set against taking anyone are UKIP and a large percentage of Tory activists – they can add Syrian refugees to their NIMBY list of council houses and wind turbines.

I do understand some of their concerns but when they use the pathetic excuse of stopping refugees coming here as they be ISIS infiltrators then you lose any little respect you had for their views.

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?

Ipswich Prefabs and Judy Terry - 'Looking for Colin Noble'

On Thursday we held our latest North East Area Committee meeting and though we have had a healthy attendance at most of our meetings at this one we had over 70 residents attend, our best attendance so far.

Many attended for the first time and they came along to question Tory Councillor for Rushmere, Judy Terry about her statements in the local press about their homes – the much loved prefabs

These bungalow type houses were built just after the war and were at first were expected only to last 25 years but over 60 years later they are still going strong. Other prefabs in the town have been knocked down, but the proximity of the Rushmere prefabs tom the Suffolk countryside and the long gardens have made these dwellings much demanded.

The reason for the sudden interest in the prefabs is that Cllr Judy Terry mentioned her plan for their demolition and replacement with new houses and a care home at a Suffolk County Council meeting – now this is quite strange as the prefabs are the responsibility of Ipswich Borough Council and Richard Pope is the Tory spokesman for housing and he also seems to have been caught unaware by the plans of Judy Terry. She indicated that she already had been in discussion with two developers and a local architect and had even take her County colleague Colin Noble along to ask him advice on the site for a care home. ( a point of information it is worth reminding everyone that the prefabs sit 400 metres from two existing care homes that the County has handed over to Care UK and that Judy Terry sat on the planning committee that approved a care home to be built 200metres further up Humber Doucy Lane.)

Within hours of the Judy Terry making her proclamation of this new development in Rushmere (the announcement of this proposed development did seem to be another excuse to be used to back up the Tory view that the Northern Fringe development is no longer needed) residents were up in arms, and quite quickly Judy Terry had issued a press release to say all she was calling for was a debate about the future of the prefabs and was not calling for their demolition.

The press release was used by Ipswich Spy and even received a comment from her Tory colleague Colin Noble – who tweeted: “Cllr. Terry recently took me for a walk around the estate and shared her vision, I could not agree more with this campaign, clearly residents do what they can to make the best of the situation but Ipswich Borough Council should be ashamed to have these pre-fabs in their stock. Time to rebuilt, residents deserve better than the pathetic sticky plaster proposed by the Labour Leadership. “

Now what followed was number of letters from residents and ex residents of the prefabs, all unhappy with Judy Terry’s plan – many of the residents are some of our senior citizens (not all) and they were very concerned that were suddenly to lose their homes.
It quickly became quite obvious that her ‘vision’ for Inverness Rd was not one shared by the residents and this led to a number attending the area committee, two had also sent in formal requests for a detailed answer on the future of the prefabs from the council.

At the start of the meeting, one Tory councillor asked me why so many people were at the meeting showing that the Tory Group were oblivious to the uproar Judy Terry’s statements had caused.

As chairman of the committee, I read out the two questions and also the prepared answer I then allowed Judy Terry to comment. Her only line of defence was that she wanted to start a debate- not sure you start a debate by talking to two developers and getting plans drawn up before you speak to either the landlords (Ipswich Borough Council) or the residents.

Her excuses did not seem to please the residents and a number then asked Judy Terry a number of questions, one asked why she had taken Mr Noble round the area- Judy Terry said she did not know anyone called Noble, I then indicated that they meant her Tory County colleague, Colin Noble. She still seemed to deny that she had taken Cllr Noble round the area of the prefabs.

Two 24 year old sisters then stated that they were unhappy with Cllr Terry’s claim that the majority of the residents were aged or disabled. A number of the prefabs have been purchased from the council by the tenants and one lady who had purchased hers was almost in tears as she informed Judy Terry that her irresponsible comments had now made it impossible to sell her own home.

After 15 minutes of questions we had to move onto other agenda items but I allowed Judy Terry to make a closing statement, she then blamed a Labour councillor for saying that the homes need to be demolished. I then added the closing remarks to the debate, stating that we know the prefabs will not last forever but when we do make a plan for their future it will be the residents who will be the first to hear and they will be consulted. I then asked Judy Terry two direct questions in front of the audience, did she invite Colin Noble to visit the area and if she did not why did he say he had visited the area of the prefabs? She stated for the third time that evening she had not taken Cllr Colin Noble round the prefabs and did not know why he had said he had visited!

At the end of the meeting Judy Terry spent a number of minutes discussing the prefabs with residents as her two Tory colleagues seemed in a hurry to leave. I and my Labour colleagues also spoke to some very angry and upset residents who informed us that they would call for the resignation of Cllr Judy Terry at the next are committee.

An eventful meeting that left many of us shocked and rather unsure what Judy Terry had planned. We did not have to wait long – under 10 hours to be even more confuses! The next morning Ipswich Spy spoke to Judy Terry and reported her view of ‘prefab gate’. She now informed us that she had invited Colin Noble round the area of the prefabs (she had denied this in a direct question from me only hours earlier) she still stated that she only wanted to start a debate (no mention of developers and plans already drawn up). She also indicated that by myself saying the ‘prefabs will not last forever’ that we do have a plan and we were hiding it from the residents. Only a week earner she said she had only raised the matter because we did not have a plan!

She then accused Labour of inviting residents to the meeting (not that would be wrong) in a leaflet we had delivered on the estate – the leaflet we did issue to allay residents’ fears does not mention the area committee. (The false accusation about the Labour leaflet was then repeated by another Tory blogger here). But most upsetting was her comments on why Labour councillor Tracy Grant was not at the meeting, implying that Cllr Grant was scared to attend in case she was asked about her views on the prefabs. Again Cllr Judy Terry is wrong Cllr Grant had given her apologies over two weeks before the meeting and before Cllr Terry had raised the prefab issue. Tracy works for Suffolk Police and they are so short staffed she was not allowed to have time off for the meeting. I hope Judy Terry has the decency to apologise to Tracy Grant (this inaccuracy about the attendance of Cllr Grant was again repeated on an Ipswich Tory blog)

So it seems Colin Noble did visit the area of the prefabs and thinks we should be ashamed of these much loved houses – people’s homes!

This still leaves a number of questions for Judy Terry to answer;

1. Why did she say Colin Noble had not visited the prefabs?

2. Why did she make an incorrect statements about the attendance of Tracy Grant without checking the facts?

3. Who are the two developers, did they approach her or did she approach them?

4. Are Care UK involved with the proposed care home?

5. Will the replacement 220 homes be council owned?



Alasdair Ross and Sandra Gage looking for Colin Noble in Inverness Road

More worrying is that Judy Terry seems to have difficulty in remembering what she has written or what she has done. At the last Full Council we had #Flyergate where Judy seemed to forget what she had written only weeks earlier in her Flyer column (her excuse then was she must have written it last year and had forgotten what she said) and now we have even more worryingly her inability to remember inviting a fellow cabinet member round the Inverness Rd area. She also seems to have none or little support from her Ipswich Tory colleagues, the Tory housing spokesman, Richard Pope did not even know of her plans for the prefabs. Maybe the pressure is getting too much for her.

I hope she will use the comment section on this blog to answer the 5 questions I have asked, and also that she has the decency to apologise to Tracy Grant.

But I think that this episode shows that many residents no longer have confidence in her ability to look after their best interests- and that many of them will use their vote on May 2nd to say that she is no longer wanted as their elected representative.

Footnote: Cllr Tracy Grant could not attend the Area Committee because of her work for Suffolk Police but on the same night the Police and Crime Commissioner attended the South East Area Committee – but he also seemed to lack the support of his Tory colleagues as all 3 Tory Borough councillors in the South east failed to turn up!

Ipswich Prefabs - No cause for concern

Myself outside the prefabs in Inverness Road with local campaigner, Sandra Gage.


At the North East Ipswich Area Committee this week, a number of residents from the prefabs in Rushmere Ward attended, many to inform Tory Cllr, Judy Terry that they were not happy with her comments about their homes. Certain Ipswich Tories have since accused me of delivering a leaflet to the area of Inverness Road to invite residents to the committee meeting. Below is a copy of the leaflet and you can see there is no mention of the Area Committee - another Tory statement made without any evidence to back it up!

Dear Residents,

The highly-publicised call by Tory Councillor Judy Terry for the prefabs to be demolished, calling them ‘not fit for purpose’ has caused unnecessary alarm and anxiety among residents.

We want you to know that there is no cause for concern.

We agree with the statement made by Councillor John Mowles, the borough council’s Housing spokesman, on learning of Cllr Terry’s outburst:


“The prefabs are some of the council’s most challenging properties to maintain and as a responsible landlord we are constantly reviewing how best to keep them up to modern standards.

However, we know that the vast majority of our tenants living in these houses love them. Whatever we do in future will be done with their best interests in mind and in full consultation with them.

It is deeply irresponsible of Councillor Terry to start waving her ill-thought out plans around in public without any thought about the effect it would have on residents. It has caused a lot of distress for many elderly and vulnerable residents.”



What Cllr Terry got wrong:

• Her condemnation of the prefabs was made at a meeting of Suffolk County Council, who have no responsibility for housing

• She said the homes were unfit and even got her Tory colleague, Colin Noble, the county council’s Health and Adult Care cabinet member, to say that Ipswich Borough Council ‘should be ashamed to have these prefabs in their stock’

• She has obtained from architects a plan for redevelopment of the site

• Her insults have smeared the community and worried elderly residents.
What we say:

• The prefabs are fit for purpose

• They are very popular with residents

• Cllr Terry should know that when she comes out with her unconsidered thoughts about these houses she is talking about your homes.

Most people do not use council services?

Yesterday Tory run Suffolk County Council, made their ‘big decision’ – as expected a 0% Council Tax rise for 2013/14 but then they went further and said that tax will be frozen for the next four years! At first you would think residents would be happy with this – but what about services?

How do they know what the Government will give them in grants over the next 4 years? We did not even know this year’s settlement till a few weeks ago. Of course the County is fortunate that they will not face the uncertainty caused by bedroom tax and benefit changes that District Councils will.

So will the County just drain the reserves over the next four years or is the truth that New Strategic Direction is still alive and that the County will continue to sell off/ close down and cut local services?

So we are at the bottom of league tables for Education, but Tory run Suffolk are not intending to increase education funding over the next four years?

Highways – the plan to hand over to Balfour Beatty is in pieces – but the County still know that extra funding for roads will not be needed?

Libraries – Community Groups are already struggling to find the £100,000 they need to keep the library service open – will there be even less county funding over the next four years?

Mobile Library service – down to just one stop in Ipswich (in Tory run Bixley ward) – sign of things to come?

But as leading Tory Suffolk county Council Jane Storey stated yesterday;

"most people don't use council services" so why should they pay council tax?


This epitomises Tory selfishness! So no residents drive on roads, walk on pavements, send their children to schools, call trading standards (horsemeat?), have elderly relatives in care homes?

Maybe we should just be glad that it is Borough and District Councils that empty our bins, look after council houses and even though it should be a County task – in Ipswich run the museum service.

They have decided on a 4 year council tax freeze – because they have an election in May – and are so happy with that they have sent a letter to Eric Pickles – to say ‘look at us, we are just like you’ – maybe they should write to another Tory Minister – Mr Gove – and tell him how they are going to improve education standards but at no extra cost to council tax payers!

Pembroke may no longer be leader, Andrea Hill may have gone, Mr Bee may be more PR savvy but that is just a smokescreen as Colin Noble, Judy Terry, and Guy McGregor are still pushing through the ‘New Strategic Direction’ and why not as Cllr Storey tells us – residents do not use council services!

My week ahead 11 - 16 February 2013

Monday 11 February, 6pm – Labour Group meeting

Tuesday 12 February, 6pm – Culture Working Group

Wednesday 13 February, 9am – Visit Sidegate Primary School
11am – Walkabout in Bixley Ward, Ipswich

Thursday 14 February, 6pm –Scrutiny meeting

Saturday 16 February, 10.30am – Labour campaigning in North West Ipswich

The week ahead seems quite varied with visits to schools, walkabouts, culture working groups, and scrutiny.

Finishing on Saturday with campaigning, all Suffolk County Council candidates now selected and so we continue to get out on the streets to get our message over. A number of Labour councillors will have been in Nottingham this weekend, debating on how to save locals services that are under threat from the savage Tory (Lib Dem supported) cuts. Labour takes local government very seriously and the councillors would have heard speeches from Ed Miliband .

I am sure those councillors will come back inspired, and it is not just in Ipswich we want to get our message across, we need to reach into every town and village in Suffolk. As a county we have been let down by this Tory run county council. Andrea Hill and Pembroke may have gone but the likes of Colin Noble are still pushing through their ‘sell everything off’ plan. Suffolk along with Barnet seems to be the leading Tory authorities bent on a very right wing way to run local government and with Colin Noble we seem to have an Eric Pickles clone.

So we have a county promoting ‘Free Schools’ selling off care homes, and we even have Tory cabinet members who are happy to say they will not even vote for their own Tory MP as he does not seem right wing enough with his views on gay marriage.
In Ipswich we could see most Tory County councillors lose their seats – can you see Ipswich getting a good deal off a rural controlled county council? That is why it is important that we win seats all over the county – and we can do it.

My week ahead 28 January - 3 February 2013

Monday 28 January, 4pm, Culture Portfolio meeting,
5pm – Electoral Services Working Group
6pm - Labour Group meeting

Wednesday 30 January, 6pm – Full Council Meeting, Ipswich Borough Council,

Thursday 31 January, 7pm – North East Ipswich Area Committee meeting

Saturday 2 February, 10.30am – Labour campaigning in North West Ipswich

Full Council week and the issue of ‘Council tax’ will be discussed by many, the Tory Police and Crime Commissioner has set a 0% rise but only thanks to using his reserves and the County Council have also decided on 0%, but many will wonder what they will do next year when there is nothing left to get rid of/sell off – will the collapse of the deal to allow Balfour Beatty to take over Suffolk roads put a dent into their budget proposals?

With the cuts in grants being made to local authorities by the coalition government plus the uncertainty of how councils will receive housing benefit money it is hard for councils to not have to make cuts to their services, The bribes of extra grants and then the threats of having to use an expensive referendums to put council tax up leaves council with little room for movement.

Tories in opposition including in Ipswich are quick to call for 0% rise or even a cut but at the same time we had Nadia Cenci asking for the council to spend money by cancelling the contract (agreed to by the Tory/Lib Dem council) with a wind turbine firm. This would have cost every resident in Ipswich money but it seems they are happy to ask us to spend money but do not understand that this will mean having to put tax up or cut another service to pay for it!

The abysmal way the Tories and Eric Pickles are treating local authorities has even led to a number of Tory authorities to write to David Cameron and complain, counties like Essex leading the way in this protest but with Suffolk being led by the likes of Pickles ‘clone’ Colin Noble there is not much chance of Suffolk County Council rocking the boat.

The Suffolk Tory leadership – Cllrs Bee, Terry and Noble were quick to tell the public what a great job they have done and are doing and they still managed to set a 0% Council Tax but last week you would have thought the same three Cllrs must have been out of the country as they left Graham Newman to take all the flak for a second set of terrible educational results for the County.

I will leave the finals words to a Tory Suffolk MP when describing the Tory run County education service – “It is a mess”.

Education, education, education.

This Week schools in Suffolk were hit with a second set of bad results, leading to education becoming the lead story in local papers over the last few days. Ben Gummer has even managed to get the head of Ofsted along to Ipswich this morning to talk to all Heads. I say all Heads, in fact only Heads of schools in his constituency – this has made a number of other Heads unhappy especially as they teach a number of Ben Gummers residents even if their school sits outside the Ipswich constituency.

The school I am involved with, Sidegate Primary has just had a disappointing Ofsted report and has led Ipswich Spy to be critical of myself (and to be even handed also Cllr Terry) as we are governors of the school and we were also criticised in the report.

There is no doubt in my mind that many Ipswich primary schools will now find themselves classed as ‘inadequate’ or even placed into ‘special measures’. This week we saw Broke Hall School in Bixley (with Tory Cllr Governors) slip from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’

So Ipswich Spy may be right all leaders in education need to be held responsible. I am not talking about Gove (though many would like to see him moved) but let’s look at the Tory run Suffolk County Council – we now have a council that has some of the worst preforming primary schools and now this week we are shown that we have some of the worst preforming Secondary schools- when you take away the City Education authorities from the table, Suffolk as a county is at the bottom.

These poor results have even seen Ben Gummer be critical of the Tory run council – we are normally told very quickly by Tories that when an organisation fails so miserably that those responsible should go- but Cllr Newman is still sat as Head of Education in the County. But I would not like him to go, I find him a decent man who has the best interests of the children of the county as his priority but though he is in the paper every day we have heard nothing from Mark Bee the County Leader, or any other members of his cabinet, the likes of Colin Noble who seem more interested in promoting ‘Free Schools’.

Ipswich Spy may accuse governors in failing Sidegate School what about the County cabinet – of course Cllr Terry sits on both bodies.

But Sidegate is not failing, if Ipswich Spy had been able to see the full detail of the report they may have a different view, on Tuesday we had a parents meeting at the school and over 160 parents attended plus staff and members of the governing body (Cllr Terry could not attend as in London) and the feeling of the parents was that the school is not failing their children and the praise for the Head and her team were most warming.

But Suffolk is falling behind nationally in education standards but the first people to be held responsible should be the Tory County Cabinet.

But what of central government? Mr Gove has been quiet this week but Mr Pickles has now told us that 'Free Schools' can set up in any building they wish and do not even need planning permission- but if a state run school would still need planning permission just to build new classrooms (though not many can afford to build anything under this government).

People of Suffolk - wake up and smell the roses

For those who think the Tories will only make cuts where they really need to, you need to read the comments from a leading Suffolk Tory- Colin Noble, Tory Portfolio Holder for adult and community services has told the EADT that the cuts will be big - his own words are:

“But when people say you are only doing this to save money, they need to wake up and smell the roses. The cuts are coming and they will be big.”

His leader Pembroke said he did not have a clue what cuts are going to be made (said just before he jetted off on holiday)

Well we know one cut - no Road Crossing patrol person outside Sidegate School, well that's 2 grand saved (oh and the few extra quid George Osborne is going to save by buying his own Christmas Tree for Number 11)

Cuts before children's safety - never saw that on a Ben Gummer leaflet!