Do Ipswich Tories really want new homes built?

Tory bloggers have been very quick today to pick up on the interview our local paper did with departing Tory councillor for Rushmere, Judy Terry.

In her interview she was very critical of our Labour administration and blamed us for the lack of house building over the last few years. What will not surprise many Rushmere and Ipswich residents is that she left our some very important details.

Only one councillor spoke against the housing development planned for the St Clement’s site at the Ipswich Planning committee. That councillor was Alan Murray the Tory County Councillor for Bixley and a SCC Cabinet member.
Only one councillor suggested that IBC purchase the St Clement’s site – but not for much needed housing, but to turn it into a park. That councillor was John Carnell, the Tory Borough councillor for Bixley.

Cllr Terry also failed to mention that the development of the Colchester Rd Fire Station site almost fell through after Tory run SCC dramatically raised their 106 funding requirements from the original amount quoted in the pre-development brief. Some may have found it strange that Cllr Terry was involved in the planning committee for that development when the sale of the site (with the money going to SCC of which she was a Cabinet member) depended on planning permission being gained.

Now we do know that Judy Terry does suffer from memory lapses, she did forget she had written an ‘Ipswich Flyer’ column when she was quoted from it at Full Council and then her most famous memory lapse came when she forgot/denied she had taken her fellow Tory Cabinet member, Colin Noble to see the prefabs in Inverness Rd. Of course that is when she was more interested tearing down people’s homes and replacing with a care home and housing.

So now we have Judy Terry – the Tory who wants more houses built and last year when she was up for election she was Judy Terry – the Tory who wanted to hold a referendum on the Northern Fringe development (paid for by council money).
So where do the Ipswich Tories (and Lib Dems for that matter) stand on the Northern Fringe development – maybe Cllr Cenci – their deputy leader can answer that?

Their Tory MP seems to be concerned that the housing will not be of a high standard of design (not that he seems that concerned about the design of the new Chantry High School)

So if Ipswich Tories are so concerned about the lack of housing being built in the town, come out with a statement supporting the plan to build on the Northern Fringe and help us put pressure on the Tory County Council and National Government to contribute to the development by helping with the building of transport and educational infrastructure that is needed to make the plan a success.

My week ahead, 7 - 12 October 2013

Tuesday 8 October, 5pm - Sidgate School Finance meeting
6pm - Culture and Leisure Working Group

Thursday 10 October, 6pm - Area Committee Chairs meeting at Grafton House

Saturday 12 October, 10am - Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich

We are now back into the full flow of meetings with an extra meeting last week as the North East Area Committee hosted a public meeting about the NHS Trust proposals to develop the St Clement's Hospital site into a housing estate. Over 100 residents attended and the Trust, IBC and councillors were able to answer a number of questions from residents. IBC Officers and councillors will now also be aware of the many concerns residents have when the proposal comes to the Planning Committee in November.

The ability to get this meeting arranged quite quickly was yet one more reason why the Area Committees provide a better service to residents than the previous area forums - I am certain that most Tory councillors are also agreed on this but not many are prepared to say that in public as they keep up a display of opposition to the idea of area committees, how much longer they will keep up this futile battle is anyone's guess as there still seems to be little direction or leadership coming from the Tory group.

This week we start a series of working groups where we look at the budgets and spending plans for next year. We have the Culture Working Group on Tuesday evening. these working groups are all party - so councillors can work together to make sure the best decisions are made for residents in what are difficult times as we face yet again a massive cut in our government grant. Previous years we have seen the opposition contribute in the discussions at the Culture Working group but in other working groups the opposition have not even attended.

When the Tories and Lib Dems were in power, the Labour Group were not asked to contribute even though we were the largest group- but we have always wanted contributions from all three groups, but again the Tory response seems not to be inconsistent, with some councillors willing to join in with meaningful discussions whilst others can't even be bothered to attend the meetings.

We will not know for a couple of weeks what the Tory stance is this year.

Ipswich Tories pretend they want consultation.

St Clement's Hospital- soon to be houses?

The Ipswich Tories, with plenty of input from their Lib Dem allies have recently launched their plans for housing in Ipswich over the next 13 years. The Local Development Framework (LDF) outlines a number of options for housing across Ipswich. Their "preferred option" includes building 442 houses on gardens across the town and 43 housing units on the Halifax Road play area- a place where the council has spent thousands on play equipment recently!

One option not in the LDF is to build on the Northern Fringe (Valley Road area). It seems they will build on any brown/green space in the town rather than build in the North. They feel there will be no need to build on the northern fringe till after 2021.

Of course their excuse is to blame the Government for setting a figure of 15,400 dwellings to be built in Ipswich by 2021.

In Rushmere we have a possibility of 16 dwellings on the site of the Colchester Road Fire station and of an even greater concern is the plan to build 97 homes on the site of the old driving test centre on Woodbridge Road, this of course is right next to the current building development on the site of the old Hayhill's allotments.

A number of residents are only finding out about these plans thanks to a leaflet campaign by my fellow Labour colleagues. There does seem that no major effort has been made by the Tories or Lib Dems to get the views of local residents. No plans to arrange any public meetings, this is particularly distressing for those residents who live near some of the sites which are earmarked for large housing developments such as the plan for the St Clement's Hospital site.

The Ipswich Labour Party will keep working to inform as many residents as possible, you have till February 25th to send in your views to Ipswich Borough Council. you can find more details of the LDF here.

The local paper 'The Evening Star' are also running a story highlighting the concern of local residents that there seems to be no real attempt by the Tory/Lib Dems to include the residents of Ipswich in any meaningful consultation on the plans for housing within the Borough. You can read that story here.

Remember you have at present till the 25th February to get your views listened to by the Tory/LibDems. You can contact me through this blog if you want further details on the LDF.