Caroline's WOODBRIDGE Page

Farlingaye Students make a difference!

News coverage of the FHS/SCC Ipswich Road traffic Island project

News coverage of the Ipswich Road traffic Island project. Farlingaye students work with council officers and myself (Caroline Page) to design a much needed traffic island for Woodbridge (-click to enlarge)

Woodbridge - Kyson Point: closure of the embankment path

The Environment Agency is closing the footpath along the embankment from Woodbridge to Kyson point (don’t worry – I have asked them to ensure it is reopened briefly for the Regatta weekend) . There will be an alternative footpath route opened for the summer.

Why is this necessary and what are they doing? When I asked the Environment Agency their spokesman explained:

” the Kyson embankment has been suffering from erosion by the tides (as all sea walls do). Recently the original revetment, which consisted of loose concrete and rubble blocks has given way, exposing the clay of the embankment and allowing the erosion process to speed up. To repair the embankment, we will be replacing the clay which has been eroded from the front of the bank and covering this clay with a new revetment, made of open stone asphalt. This material is extremely resilient, reducing our future maintenance costs, and helps to break the wave action, rather than reflect the wave energy, which helps to maintain the level of the salt marshes. The material will soon vegetate and in time become completely hidden from view. We will, in the time available, be addressing the worst areas of erosion this year and will then, subject to funding, return next year to continue the work.”

Giving my 128th pint of blood...

Here’s a scary fact: 96% of us rely on the other 4% to give blood.

So, if you’re generally healthy and aged between 17 and 65, why not do something amazing? Give blood too. The NBS staff down at the Woodbridge Community Centre sessions will only be too glad to help you.

I started very regular blood donation when my brother – who had the same blood group as myself – became ill with a rare cancer, and every couple of weeks would need pints of blood as a transfusion. His illness lasted no more than six months – and that was thirty years ago.

Do you know, all the blood I have given since then, all 128 pints of it, would probably only just about cover the amount he was given during his illness. It really makes you think.

Heres a picture I took on Friday last as I gave my latest pint down in Woodbridge Community Hall.

It takes very little time to donate a pint of blood. (And you get a fab range of biscuits afterwards..)

They have regular blood donation sessions in Woodbridge, Kesgrave and Martlesham as well as a number in Ipswich. You can search for a session here:

http://www.blood.co.uk/SessionSearcher/Search.aspx

Please don’t leave it to someone else.

You have to pay for the best?

Suffolk workers are not highly paid (last year 40% of all workers in Suffolk were paid less than £17,000 a year – and £17000 is over £8500 LESS than the national average wage. A tenth of Suffolk workers were paid £6000 or less) .

Modest salaries indeed – except when it comes to the eye-wateringly high salaries dished out to the top execs at Suffolk County Council. Just to remind you, the Chief Executive is paid £230.000 per annum, plus pension and expenses. Suffolk County Council leader Jeremy Pembroke’s rationale: “The people who live in Suffolk need and deserve the very best.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7149006.ece

The more you pay, the better quality you get?

Yes of course Jeremy. Wasn’t Fabio Capello the best paid manager in this year’s World Cup?

Woodbridge Thoroughfare temporarily closed to cars

ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984: SECTION 14

TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF PART OF THE U3628 THE THOROUGHFARE, WOODBRIDGE AND SUSPENSION

Suffolk County Council intends to make an order closing the U3628 The Thoroughfare, Woodbridge outside no. 88 next to the Red Lion Public House to enable repairs to a collapsed sewer. Other coordinated works may also take place during this period.

Access will be open for pedestrians and cyclists.

The diversion route will be via Lime Kiln Quay Road, Quay Side and Quay Street.

It is intended that the closure will operate on 4 July 2010 and 11 July 2010, but if necessary the order may remain in force for longer

During the closure, The Suffolk County Council (Parish of Woodbridge) (Various Roads) (Traffic Regulation) Order 1975 will be suspended for access purposes insofar as it relates to one-way traffic in The Thoroughfare.

Save rural transport!

I’ve just written to the Government Coalition, who are asking for public discussion of their forthcoming policies:

“The coalition currently plans to “encourage joint working between bus operators and local authorities” This is not enough!

The deregulation of the bus services – hardly noticed by the city dwellers who make up most of the UK’s central administration, and the affluent who make up most of the country-side administrators – spelled tragedy for rural areas and particularly the rural poor. Over the last government it has got worse and worse and more and more expensive. The Audit Commission commented a few years back how poor the deregulated service was – particularly in rural areas – in terms of cost, provision and accountability. This poor service is particularly hard on the poor, the sick, jobseekers, the elderly, the young, the incapable, the green, those who wish to travel in the evenings, and the dispossessed. With the current financial situation, the deregulated services look set to get worse just at the time when people have most need of alternatives to the private car. Where i live – a small country town – there is no way to get to the local hospital for the evening visiting time unless you cycle (six dark miles of country road) or drive your own car!

The Liberal Democrats were committed in their manifesto to reregulation of the bus services – and this should still go ahead. Before deregulation , a policy of cross-subsidisation meant that the popular bus routes funded less popular but socially necessary ones. SInce then, under Labour – who paid lipservice to sustainable transport – the cost of bus and coach travel rose 24% over inflation 1998-2009 and enriched companies like Stagecoach and First while producing less and less of a service and thus depriving many people of a lifeline.

With reregulation we could retrieve this situation and provide a better service to the travelling public at no extra cost to the public purse. We would improve our green credentials at the same time!

If we don’t reregulate I fear the buses are reaching a Beeching situation. And when we lose a functioning service for good we will truly pauperise many people and prevent them from contributing to the economic recovery which we all seek!

Why not have your say! The deadline is June 10 http://programmeforgovernment.hmg.gov.uk/

Woodbridge Town Council Report June 2010

This one is mostly about spending – and mis-spending – public money, and transport!

Full Council :

The latest Full Council in Suffolk County council Annual General Meeting was held at the end of May. Eddie Alcock and Patricia O’Brien were respectively elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman for the upcoming year.

TheLib Dems had called in the administration’s desire to put aside standing orders and allow the Chief Executive to spend up to £122,000 on private consultants without putting the bid out to public tender or disclosing what these consultants were to do. The company Scintillate will be paid around £50,000 – £55,000 and Bedfordshire-based Fields of Learning will get up to £42,000 for two months’ work; and DNA will be paid around £30,000 for one month’s work. Fields of Learning has already received over £400,000 from Suffolk for training senior managers in blue-skies thinking.

At the meeting we were told by Deputy Leader that £122,000 was a tiny proportion of the annual council budget. I pointed out that £122000 may not seem a lot to the administration , but from the viewpoint of Woodbridge – where the Deben Family Centre closed for want of £50,000 – it’s a fortune.

Sadly, the Call-in was defeated: by 18 votes to 50.

This meeting also endorsed allowing the public to attend and ask questions at the monthly Cabinet meetings. This will be up and running by the next Cabinet meeting, which takes place on the 22nd of June. Questions would need to be submitted at least 4 days in advance.

Local Buses

Well, we finally got our plightcovered by the East Anglian with a very full article at the end of May, complete with a photo. The EADT asked First buses for comments. First told the paper that they had not changed their bus services for three years and that they had never received our letter – both of which were very questionalble statements. This allowed me to write a very forthright letter to the EAD|T which was published under the leadline “Bus Company’s reply to complaint is laughable” and I was fortunate afterwards to have an interview with Mitchell Bradshaw, SCC head of Transport Planning.

It has become clear that we CAN make a difference. For example, the 165 bus has had such a takeup it is wishing to operate outside County Council grants. He suggested that we should approach the smaller companies with ideas for services we need. I am now planning on contacting some of the smaller companies and – in the first instance – suggesting a Woodbridge bus that serves the very clearly defined visiting times at Ipswich hospital.

Bollards in Hasketon Road – at last!

For years the residents of Hasketon Road have been plagued by inconsiderate parking by a few thoughtless parents at school drop-off and pick-up times. Their cars churn up the verges and have posed a safety risk to the hundreds of students who cycle and walk to the school every day.

I have been talking to the highway authorities for eighteen months trying to get this solved. Although I have been able to agree double yellow lines around the corners of Ransom Road, we then needed some other solution for the adjacent verges. And there was some reluctance (to put it mildly) to see bollards as the answer.

Other options were recommended and explored – notably the officers’ preferred option of building up and reseeding the verge. This was attempted last May after a a wait of seven months and lasted precisely as long as until the contractors left the site. The residents were – rightly – incandescent.

A year later we have seen no further progress, and there was some suggestion that reseeding and building up should be attempted again. My view is that to even consider rebuilding the verges once more is a waste of everyone’s energy and a trial of their patience. For a start, it will involve another wait of a year as we were told 18 month ago that spring is the only time for building and reseeding. And for the likelihood of no better outcome than last time. I feel that the residents of Hasketon Road deserve better than this continuing putting-off. The other non-bollard option recomme nded was preventative planting – but local town councillors have told me of other places in Woodbridge where planting to discourage parking has been ineffective.

At this point – luckily – our wonderful community police came to the rescure and put down traffic cones along the Hasketon Road with immediate success. parking stopped just like that. The cones were placed exactly where we intend to place bollards. The success is not surprising – it mirrors the success of the bollards that are installed a couple of hundred yards further down where the Hasketon Road becomes the Burkitt Road, and which has discouraged dangerous parking by parents at St Marys.

As well as the police, I ‘ve sought the views of residents and both town and district councillors and the issue was raised at the last SNT tasking meeting by Woodbridge Town Councillor Miles. Bollards were agreed by all as the best solution.A nice set of concrete bollards costs around £3000 – a sum that I am more than happy to contribute from my locality budget to improve the safety of Woodbridge residents, students of Farlingaye, and the much tried inhabitants of Hasketon Road. I’ve filled in the paperwork and hoipe things will progress speedily.

Other Locality budget spends

Recent applications for my locality budget funding have included:

• Assistance to publish walking maps of Woodbridge

• An external canopy for Farlingaye High School

• Two bicycles for Woodbridge Town Pastors

• Grit bins to help Woodbridge residents de-ice their roads in the next cold spell

• Support for a Town Crier.

Quality of Life money: Ipswich Road and Sandy Lane

Congratulations are due to the Year 8 members of Farlingaye High School (and their teacher Millie Simonds) who chose to address transport and walking to school in relation to Ipswich Road traffic when working on a Make a Difference programme. You may have heard the youngsters on BBC Radio Suffolk a couple of weeks back, as they investigated the speeds of traffic on Ipswich Road. The students interviewed me, very well and professionally, as a part of their project, and I also commented live on the issues on Mark Murphy’s breakfast programme on 20 May, before attending their assembly at Farlingaye that morning.

As you know there have long been concerns about speeding along Ipswich Road, particularly in relation to those walking and cycling to Kyson and Farlingaye schools. I had reserved £12,000 from Quality of Life money to build an island in the road which is being planned at the moment. Now the Highways department at Suffolk County Council have invited the FHS students to take part in the design of this island, so as to see the project through! This ought to mean it is designed to be fit for purpose.

Measures for calming Sandy Lane continue. I walked the lane with Martlesham Cllrs Forbes Green and Brome some weeks back, and have since had input from residents at the Woodbridge end. I have put all ideas to the Suffolk County Highways dept. and asked for any further ones from them. I am also consulting Sustrans, because the bulk of Sandy Lane is also Cycle Route 1. Any good ideas for making £4000 stretch as far as possible would be gratefully received.

SCC Olympics consultation

The Suffolk County Council website is currently holding a survey on the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics. This is in order to help with the planning of events relating to the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.

This survey is there to rank your expectations of what you think should happen in Suffolk for the Olympic Games. Questions include ‘A Big Screen in town centres showing Olympic Games coverage’ and ‘Olympics activities in Schools’.

Please find the survey here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HJ3965G

EADT coverage of Suffolk CC appointing consultants without tendering

Article in the Evening Star

Dear Editor

Last week you covered the decision by Suffolk County Council’s Conservatives to spend a further £122,000 of public money on unspecified ‘services’ provided by three consultancy companies: Fields of Learning, Scintillate Business Ltd and DNA (Friday 28 May: New Row over cost of consultants). This was voted through by the Conservatives against strenuous protests from the Lib Dem opposition who maintained – rightly – that at a time of belt-tightening, this is a grossly inappropriate use of public money.

What was the response of the Deputy Leader of the council? “This is a tiny proportion of the county council’s budget!”

It is a tragedy that Suffolk is currently run by people who consider £122,000 a small sum of money. For the average Suffolk resident it is an extraordinarily large sum of money! My local family centre – the Deben Family Centre in Woodbridge – had to close because the County Council couldn’t afford £50,000 to support it! £122,000 is the annual salary for six firefighters. It would buy a family house in Ipswich.

As previously reported in your paper, one of these consultants (Bedfordshire-based Fields of Learning) has already been used by Suffolk County Council. Last year the council spent nearly half a million pounds of Suffolk taxpayers’ money on training which included “neuro-linguistic programming”. If you search the internet for neuro-linguistic programming you will discover it is one of the 10 most discredited forms of intervention in published research – on a par with ‘equine treatment for eating disorders’ and ‘dolphin assisted therapy’. What on earth are we doing spending council tax money on this at a time when we’re having to tighten our belts?

Our new government has just instituted a £500 rule which means that all public expenditure over this sum has to be publically declared – and justified. The people of Suffolk should rise up and demand that the same rule applies to their council!

Yours sincerely

Caroline Page

Published in the EADT 25/May/2010

High pay in the public sector!

The Cabinet Office has just published a list of the highest-paid Whitehall Civil Servants – those who earn more than £150,00 per annum.

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/

There are a hundred and seventy Whitehall Civil Service chiefs who earn more than the prime minister.

There are only two or three who earn more than our Suffolk County Council Chief Executive Andrea Hill.

How can this be?

The average pay for workers in Suffolk is LESS than the national average – and much less than the pay of those in London.

Woodbridge bus services: the story continues...

My letter to the EADT about local buses

Caroline's WOODBRIDGE Page

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