Inverness Road - Prefab residents happy that their homes will be refurbished

Yesterday I joined Cllrs Sandra Gage and John Mowles in Inverness Road, Ipswich. It gave us a great opportunity to meet residents of the prefabs. These great homes were built just after the war and their initial lifespan was believed to be between 10 and 20 years but they have lasted much longer mainly due to the loving care they have been shown by the residents.

Whenever one becomes vacant it is not long till a new residents moves in, we call them prefabs but to residents of Inverness Rd, Humber Doucy Lane and Sidegate Lane these are just homes – much loved homes.

Residents love their homes because they are bungalows, they have great garden and they are so close to the countryside. It is obvious to any visitor that the prefabs are much valued by the residents and it is also obvious that the Tory Councillor for the ward, Cllr Judy Terry has not spoken to residents very often in her two terms as a councillor, if she had she may not have come up with the idea of knocking them down and replacing with a large amount of houses and a care home.

Her announcement last year that she had taken senior County Tory Colin Noble around the area and discussed with developers a proposal to build a care home had caused a great deal of alarm and anxiety amongst residents many of them our more senior members of the ward.

So it was not a surprise to find residents in such a good mood this week after they had heard the news that Ipswich Borough Council are just about to spend a considerable sum on re-furbishing these much loved homes.

A surveyor will visit the prefabs and homes will then be assessed with many receiving new kitchens, walk-in showers and new roofs.

Cllr Sandra Gage is also urging the Tory run County Council to do some much needed remedial work on the grass verges in the area.

The mention of the name Judy Terry did lead to one suggestion on how to fill in the deep ruts in the grass verges but not sure that would be legal!

It seems residents have not forgotten the scaremongering antics of Tory Judy Terry and I am sure many of them will make sure they use their vote in May and it will not be for Cllr Terry!

My week ahead, 13 - 19 January 2014

Monday – 13 January, 4pm – Culture Portfolio meting
6pm – Labour Group meeting

Tuesday – 14 January, 5pm – Sidegate Primary School, Steering committee

Wednesday – 15 January, 9am – Ipswich Borough Council Planning Committee

Thursday – 16 January, 6pm – Scrutiny Committee

Friday – 17 January, 7pm – IFT screening of Mandela film – ‘Long Walk to Freedom’

Saturday 11 January, 10am – Labour campaigning – South West Ipswich

Christmas holidays seems ages ago now as I have a meeting or campaigning every day this week, but with the long aim of returning a Labour Government in 2015 as the ultimate prize the hard work, I am not complaining about the busy agenda.

This week we have seen the local politics blog, Ipswich Spy shed itself of its last coat of neutrality with an attack on a respected Labour Councillor.

To be fair it has been hard for ‘Spy’ to remain neutral as it has almost become a ‘one man ‘show and as that lone writer is a former Conservative councillor it has always been obvious where his loyalties would lie.

But as we get closer to 2015 he may see that he has to lead for the Tories on the social media front with Ben Gummer having one of the most outdated websites of any MP in the country but even his site his more up to date than the local Tory site which seems to have given up the ghost of providing any information to Ipswich residents.

On twitter the writer is now using his own account as well as the ‘Spy’ one, he might as well change the handle to ‘Ben4Ben’ .

Recent examples of the Pro Tory stance has been his post about travel Ipswich, Spy mentions that we did not mention any meetings with Graham Newman, forgetting he attended an area committee where Newman had been invited the Labour Chair and that also the now monthly meeting that Graham Newman is holding where all IBC councillors are invited was because of the pressure put on Mr Newman and SCC by Labour transport spokesperson, Sandra Gage.

The attack by ‘Spy’ was on one of the most respected councillors in Ipswich, John Mowles. When I was seeking to be elected, John was the person who helped me the most and since I have been a councillor he has continued to mentor me. If I could just be as half as good as John at sorting issues for residents, I would be one of the top four councillors in Ipswich if not the whole county. So why suddenly the attack on John? Why has ‘Spy’ just become another means for Cllr Terry to continue her attacks on anything Labour attempts to do – joining the ‘Flyer’ in printing anything she wants without checking the facts – prefabs and Ransomes just been two examples where we only get the ‘Terry’ version of events?
The answer is on ‘Spy’ itself. When the ‘Spy’ one man show attended the opening of new Council Houses, it seems he was not invited into the Council House this lead to Mr Redsell writing this comment: “If he thought he got a tough time before, he ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Nothing more dangerous than an angry partner or an ignored journalist!

Good news is at least we now have an Ipswich Conservative website that is updated! Conservative Spy!

Wonder if Tim Yeo sent ‘Tory Spy’ a Christmas Card?

FOOTNOTE

Just to make this clear, it is just my opinion that Ipswich Spy has become less neutral over the last few months, only having one real contrubuter being the main reason for this. That is my opinion and by looking at the posts on 'Spy' you can formulate your own opinion.

The world is about opinions, the Mail today (again) accused the BBC of being left wing after the last episode of Sherlock! Again just an opinion.

Ipswich Spy refutes my claims, and I for one hope he adds to his contributers as the blog certainly needs a voice from the left within its team.

New bid to target empty homes

A new scheme to target long-term empty homes in Ipswich has been launched by the Borough Council.

“Report it empty” allows members of the public to make the Council aware of properties they believe have remained unoccupied for more than six months.

Empty homes can cause problems to neighbours, fall into disrepair and in some circumstances attract anti-social behaviour. The scheme gives residents thepower to help Council staff identify these homes and allow an investigation to be carried out.

Over the past year, Ipswich Borough Council has introduced a number of new tools to tackle empty homes, which have proved to be successful. It is hoped “Report it empty” will help continue this success by providing an extra link to the public to report homes that might otherwise have slipped through the net.

Councillor John Mowles, the Council’s Housing portfolio-holder, said: “We are determined to tackle empty homes in the town. Most could be brought back into use to house families in need of accommodation and we offer advice and support to owners. It is important to remember that an empty property raises no income for the owner; an occupied property provides a home and income.

“We don’t want to see homes remain empty for any longer than is absolutely necessary. The advice and incentives will, wewould hope, be sufficient to achieve this in the majority of cases. However,the Council does have Compulsory Purchase Powers (CPO) that can be pursued if necessary and we are prepared to take that path as a last resort if all else fails. In fact, a decision to serve notice of compulsory purchase has been taken in respect of six properties in the past six months.”

If you own an empty home and would like further information on the schemes to help you bring it back into use please contact the Council’s Private Sector Housing Team on 01473 433000.

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.

Not all bad news! And a big thank you.

Well after 4 years of campaigning, even with the national disaster I managed to win the Rushmere ward seat for Labour,
I have been away since the election and it will take me a few more days to get over the fact that I can now represent the people of this ward with far more effect.
I will blog later in the week with my thoughts on the poor national results, the brilliant results we had in Ipswich (3 gains) and my own victory in Rushmere.
I must thank most of the constituents who voted for me , and the support I have had from all Labour colleagues, especially those from the North East branch- John Mowles, Sandy Martin and Neil McDonald.
I must admit I did have a tear in my eye when I was declared the Ward Councillor for Rushmere, all I could think of was my late mother and father- Peter and Annie Ross - if I can be half as good a Councillor as they were the people of Rushmere will be happy.
Thank you for putting- "A cross for Ross for Rushmere".

Result:
Alasdair Ross- Labour- 1,026 votes
Paul Carter- Conservative- 1,013 votes
Leslie Nicholls- Lib Dem - 294 votes
Turnout- 39.04%
A majority of just 13- but the Tories had a majority of 104 last year!

Ipswich Film Theatre Fiasco

Yet another example of rushed through but not thought out policy by this Tory led (with Lib Dem support) administration.
This follows on last from last year when they tried to privatise the street cleaning service, then made a bodged attempt at new parking permits and more recently the decision to cut the Ipswich bus service . Now it is an attempt at privatising the Ipswich Film Theatre.
They probably thought they would get away with it now they have got rid of the lone Labour voice on the Council executive. But the Labour Group did find out and have now let this sorry story into the public domain. Here is more on the story from the Ipswich Labour Party Constituency website;
Ipswich Borough Council has been forced to reconsider its decision to privatise the management of Ipswich Film Theatre after concerns emerged about the business plan of the winning bid. Labour councillors have forced the council to reconsider the decision.The decision by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat run-Council was taken at a behind-closed-doors meeting on 24th May.
Opposition Labour councillors, who were not allowed to participate in the meeting, have since discovered that the winning bid appears to underestimate the costs involved, overestimate the amount of income that will be generated and does not conform to the council’s invitation to tender. Labour councillors are concerned that the number of specialist films shown at the Film Theatre could be cut by up to a half under the successful bid.The entire meeting where the decision was taken to privatise the Film Theatre management was rushed through in less than fifteen minutes. No councillors asked any questions, only one had read the invitation to tender document and none had read any of the bids. Labour leisure spokesperson John Mowles ( said: “There are so many unanswered questions about the winning bid that the Tories and Liberal Democrats must reconsider their decision. If the council doesn’t get this right it could mean the end of dedicated specialist film screenings in Ipswich.”Ipswich's Overview and Scrutiny Committee will now be examining the plan in detail.The last ideologically driven privatisation attempt by Ipswich Borough Council was of StreetCare services. Eventually the Lib-Cons running Ipswich Borough Council were forced to admit their preferred option would cost more, and they had to back down!

What is strange is the silence of Lib Dem Councilor, Andrew Cann. He is the (self appointed) leading Lib Dem in Ipswich who left Labour to join the party of no principles in a blaze of (self made) publicity when he released a story that the Ipswich Corn Exchange (in which the Film Theatre sits) was under threat from a Labour run administration. No press release from him this week about this bodged attempt at privatising the management of the Film Theatre by his own party!