My week ahead, 24 - 30 August 2015

Monday 24 August, 6pm – Labour campaigning in Central Ipswich

Wednesday 26 August, 11am – Labour campaigning in Rushmere Ward

Saturday 29 August, 10am - Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

Last week of August, and the last week with no meetings till Christmas but a good opportunity to get some Summer campaigning in.

Today has been a fantastic day as the Sky ride returned to Ipswich, Brilliant to see the thousands of people from young to old cycling the car free Ipswich streets. And what a show British Cycling put on – a cycle tricks show, a GB BMX star, bikes on show from Wiggo and Victoria Pendleton and all that was at the Alderman Rd rec Hub – there were further activities on show at the Town Hall, with tandems and penny farthings to try and ride.

Even the local paper quoted a couple from Colchester who wished their home town had an event like this.

Sky and British Cycling do not just pick our name out of the hat it happens because we have some great Council Officers in the events team, we have good local partners like Elmy Cycles, Crafted and others but we also have a Labour run council who believe this is the sort of thing we should be doing. Today proves the hard work is all worthwhile.

What we do not get is any praise or even a quiet ‘well done’ from our two Tory MPs but that should not come as surprise to anyone!

My week ahead, 8 - 15 September 2013.

Monday 9 September, 4pm – Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm – Labour Group Meeting

Wednesday 11 September, 6pm – East Ipswich area Housing Meeting, Reg Driver Centre

Thursday 12 September, 6pm – Overview and Scrutiny meeting, Grafton House

Saturday 14 September, 10am – Labour campaigning, South West Ipswich

Now we know the summer is over! Meetings almost every night with the big one being scrutiny this week. We will be looking at a report on the refurbishment work at Crown Pools.

But even though most of the week is spent on meetings it is important that we continue to campaign and meet residents, it seems that Ben Gummer and (some) Ipswich Tories realise that they have not done much since the last General Election and are now belatedly going out and talking to residents, not sure a fleeting visit to the multi- cultural event counts!– they have continued to lose council seats, on both the Borough and County and did very little campaigning in the Police Commissioner election last year. We are also looking at new ways to campaign and meet residents but when it comes to knocking on doors, we have a 3 year head start on the local Tory lot.

The Lib Dems? Your guess is as good as mine!

Away from that Ipswich was blessed with another great event this weekend with the Sky Ride, the Suffolk Coastal Pro race and a Sportive- all just a few weeks after Maritime Ipswich and with the Ipswich half-marathon also this month to look forward to. We do have a fantastic events team and glad to see that they will be involved over the 4 years we will be remembering the sacrifices many made during the First World War, their expertise will be of a great help.

Needs to check his facts- again!

The Tory supporting blog - 'A Riverside View' seems to have decided that when it comes to blogging - it's quantity not quality that counts. The loser in all this? The true facts!

I and others seemed to spend most of our time commenting on his posts, not just trying to put the Labour view across but also just to inform Kevin that he had got his facts wrong. But once it was obvious he had lost the argument he would just revert to abuse. I have decided just not to bother with commenting on his blog anymore, so what does he do? He now actually has a post named 'The Stupid things Alasdair Ross has said this week'

Now again, some would say best just to ignore him but the trouble is, Ipswich residents may come across his blog and believe his posts are factual, (I am not on about the posts about me - they are just make me laugh)but the posts on serious matters - Ipswich Mosques, Street Lights are just two posts recently that are full of misleading statements and seem based more on rumours that the truth.

We have his usual practice of copying his mentor at 'Bridge Ward News' so going from saying how good the Sky Ride was, he then joins Mr Spencer in criticising the date of the event. Now, sorry to disappoint you Kevin, it takes more than a few weeks to plan the Sky Ride. Now I would like to take the credit for the event but it was planned under the Tory administration. We will try and improve the event in the future and more notice of the road closures is one improvement we aim to pursue next year. We are now aware that certain dates are better than other but if you want to moan about why that date was chosen- speak to your own Tory Cllrs. They chose the date.

Then we come to the post where he really is trying to fool the Ipswich public. The plan to switch off some of the street lights in the town between midnight and dawn. Kevin seems to think it is up to us the Labour administration - wrong.
There are over 16.000 street lights in Ipswich and over 15,000 are owned by the Tory County Council. Last October the Tory Cabinet decided to implement a plan to turn off lights. the scheme will start in Ipswich then spread out all over Suffolk. Now Ipswich Borough Council do manage the lights for Suffolk County Council but we have no say about when they turn the lights off (or on).

Now I actually think the dimming of some lights or turning certain streets off is a good idea - as long as local residents can make their views known. Ipswich Borough council will now decide later this month what they will do with the 790 lights we own.

The good thing is that the system that is being used will enable changes to be made with a flick of a switch. If residents are concerned about the lighting in their roads, get in touch and we will chase it up with the County Council.

UPDATE

Today Kevin has accused me of lying about the County planning to turn the street lights off last October:

Maybe this extract from the County Papers last October may make him even admit he is wrong! Don't hold your breath.

Meeting Date: 12 October 2010Lead Councillor/s: Councillor Guy McGregor, Portfolio Holder for Roads, Transport
and Planning
STREET LIGHTING - POLICY PROPOSALS ON PART-NIGHT LIGHTING AND
DIMMING
WHO WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS DECISION?
2. All Suffolk residents and visitors.
WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES TO CONSIDER?
3. The key issues to consider are:
a) the relationship to the ‘Greenest County’ aspirations. By 2025 Suffolk
aims to achieve a 60% reduction in CO2. The Intelligent Lighting
System Project has the potential to deliver significant street lighting
energy savings and a CO2 reduction of 4,150 tonnes by April 2013,
WHAT IS THE CABINET BEING ASKED TO DECIDE?
1. The Cabinet is being asked to:
a) adopt the policy as detailed in Appendix A of this report for the
implementation of part-night lighting and dimming delivered through the
application of an Intelligent Lighting System;

My Week ahead, 6 - 12 June 2011

Monday 6 June - Afternoon meeting at Grafton House looking at a number of Culture and Leisure matters, including the 2012 Olympic legacy.
6pm Ipswich Labour Group meeting, reports from portfolio holders.

Thursday 9 June - 2pm Attending the funeral of C/Sjt KC Fortuna at St Peters Church, Colchester.




A sad occasion as I pay my respects to a fellow Rifleman, killed in Afghanistan on the 23rd May.

Saturday 11 June - 1030am Labour campaigning in North West Ipswich




Sunday 12 June - 10am Ipswich Sky Ride. I will be attending (and joining in!) with the cycle events in the town, the event is being jointly run by Ipswich Borough Council, Sky and British Cycling.

Last week I campaigned in Rushmere and Whitton Wards in Ipswich and attended the Ipswich Labour Party Victory Celebration, sadly (even with a special quiz hat)my team failed to come close to wining the quiz.

I have also been dealing with casework from constituents, issued dealt with this week have included housing, planning disputes, bus shelters and parking.