Monday 20 May - 4pm Culture portfolio meeting
6pm Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich
Wednesday 22 May - 7.30pm - Fabians meeting - 'Asylum and immigration - have we got it right?'
Thursday 23 May - 7pm - North East Ipswich Area Committee, St John's Church Hall, Cauldwell Hall Road
Friday 24 - 27 May - Trip to Verona and last stage of the Giro D'Italia
Saturday was like the first day back at school after the summer holidays, seeing your friends for the first time in ages and catching up with the gossip - but this was not our first day back at school but our first day back campaigning after two weeks off! We had 16 of us out in South West Ipswich, delivering thank you leaflets to our residents.
This is the way to deal with UKIP, getting out and talking to residents about their concerns. It is also important to be able to talk about issues like immigration and the Suffolk Fabians have a meeting about this issue on Wednesday.
But what are the other two main political groups doing to counter the rise of UKIP and to deal with the issues that concern the people of Ipswich? The Lib Dems have gone back into their 11 month hibernation, just counting the days when they are out of the coalition and they can go back to being a minor opposition party - whilst the Tories seem all over the place, blaming UKIP, thinking of joining UKIP and then attacking each other!
Locally an Ipswich Tory activist called me a moron on twitter - water off a ducks back, but I thought that sort of behavior just puts more people off politics and gets all politicians a bad name. trouble is there seems to be no self-discipline or leadership in the local Tory Party to stop it. Two of their members/candidates who have blogs seems to enjoy calling opposition Councillors names (when not attacking each other) but then it seems that this sort of behavior is also rife at the top of the Tory Party with the accusations that a senior adviser to Cameron called Tory activists 'swivel-eyed loons'.
Getting back to dealing with good news, this week the Ipswich HEARS service has now reached the target of 1,000 customers, this is a great service that looks after our senior residents and gives families peace of mind. When we took over at IBC, the Tories were planning to hand HEARS over to Suffolk County Council and we know that they would have looked to get rid of it (like the library service) as soon as they could. Well done to all those involved in HEARS.
Showing posts with label St John's Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St John's Church. Show all posts
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Friday, 21 September 2012
Most productive Area Committee meeting so far
Report on North East Area Committee
Last night we had a good attendance at our fifth area committee. The main part of the meeting was taken up with the committee having to make decisions about Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s) for North East Ipswich.
May not sound that exciting to many, but did give the opportunity for residents to see councillors making decision that will affect residents rather than just sit and discuss policy.
In Rushmere we had two TRO’s that needed to be debated and in both cases after the views of both residents and local campaigner, Sandra Gage were heard the councillors decided to alter the recommendations made by Officers. This was significant as it highlighted to residents that their views would not only be considered but that their views would be acted on.
A further TRO in St Johns Ward was passed, this TRO came around after residents got together and lobbied local councillors –a gain indication that Area Committees really can put power back in the hands of local residents. This will be even more evident next year when we hope to see work carried out by the council to improve safety in the Orwell/Pearce Road area (just off Foxhall Road) a final consultation will take place with residents within the next 3 weeks then a report will come back to the area committee. This process was started after residents came to one of our first area committees to share with us their concerns about road safety.
If the consultation supports the views of residents and officers we should see the committee approve road safety measures in the Orwell Road area and this will be seen as an outstanding success of the area committee system – giving residents the opportunity to share concerns and then work with local councillors and officers to get a result that will help improve the area we live in.
Next week (26th September) we have our first ‘Ageing Well’ event – this worthwhile event is being promoted by the North East Area Committee. This is a free event aimed at our residents who are over 60 years of age or who have retired. It will take place on Wednesday 26th at St John’s Church, Cauldwell Hall Rd – timings are 10am – 1.30pm
To book a place phone: 01473 432102
Last night we had a good attendance at our fifth area committee. The main part of the meeting was taken up with the committee having to make decisions about Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s) for North East Ipswich.
May not sound that exciting to many, but did give the opportunity for residents to see councillors making decision that will affect residents rather than just sit and discuss policy.
In Rushmere we had two TRO’s that needed to be debated and in both cases after the views of both residents and local campaigner, Sandra Gage were heard the councillors decided to alter the recommendations made by Officers. This was significant as it highlighted to residents that their views would not only be considered but that their views would be acted on.
A further TRO in St Johns Ward was passed, this TRO came around after residents got together and lobbied local councillors –a gain indication that Area Committees really can put power back in the hands of local residents. This will be even more evident next year when we hope to see work carried out by the council to improve safety in the Orwell/Pearce Road area (just off Foxhall Road) a final consultation will take place with residents within the next 3 weeks then a report will come back to the area committee. This process was started after residents came to one of our first area committees to share with us their concerns about road safety.
If the consultation supports the views of residents and officers we should see the committee approve road safety measures in the Orwell Road area and this will be seen as an outstanding success of the area committee system – giving residents the opportunity to share concerns and then work with local councillors and officers to get a result that will help improve the area we live in.
Next week (26th September) we have our first ‘Ageing Well’ event – this worthwhile event is being promoted by the North East Area Committee. This is a free event aimed at our residents who are over 60 years of age or who have retired. It will take place on Wednesday 26th at St John’s Church, Cauldwell Hall Rd – timings are 10am – 1.30pm
To book a place phone: 01473 432102
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)