The Government via the HCA has given the go ahead for loans of £5.4 million for affordable and private housing at the Mason’s Works site in Gt Blakenham. This will provide a valuable boost to local employment and meet local housing needs.
|
||||||
|
Sita, the preferred bidder, are moving ahead with public exhibitions and consultation at their own risk in advance of contract placement. Unfortunately the first meetings will be complete by the time you read this. I have emphasised to them the local concerns about traffic, health and the size of the incinerator building. It is about 40 metres high. They aim to make a planning application by December. Roads: I have asked Highways to present to Gt. Blakenham the results of their study on a crossing place in the village. It will of course be difficult to fund and must not duplicate things being done to support the housing on the cement works site. However they will investigate if any assistance could be obtained from that development. SnOasis: The application to extend the life of the SnOasis planning permission has been submitted. It is accompanied by a revised environmental statement covering particularly ecological, traffic, drainage and visibility issues. You can view the documents on line at Mid Suffolk or in hard copy at Mid Suffolk & Gt. Blakenham parish. The previous Government was encouraging planning authorities to allow additional time for approvals to be commenced as a stimulus to the economy as it emerges from recession. Therefore it is likely that Mid Suffolk will agree with the proposal. Merger: Mid Suffolk and Babergh district councils are, like the whole of local government, facing major economic problems. They are looking at a merger of just the officer team or of the total councils to reduce cost. I am somewhat sceptical of the “economies of scale” they hope will deliver the savings needed. Some large organisations are highly efficient but many are not. It is the ability to be lean not size that matters but services and expertise can be shared to good effect. Running costs must be reduced by around 8% per year, a major challenge that we must address rigorously and rapidly. New Service to Reduce Drug Related Crime: The Suffolk Drug and Alcohol Action Team has commissioned charity WDP (Westminster Drug Project) to deliver a Drug Interventions Programme. It will deliver targeted, quality interventions to drug offenders across the entire criminal justice system. This plays a key role in tackling drugs use and in reducing crime. The project aims to get adult offenders who use heroin and crack cocaine out of crime and into treatment and other support. Money is allocated to each district in Suffolk to be used to improve road problems that effect residents quality of life. In Mid Suffolk some £150k was divided between a common sum of £59k and ten county councillors at £10k each. That sounds a lot but road improvements cost a lot. This year we will have less due to the state of the economy. I have used my last year’s budget as follows but please let me know what should get priority this year. Footpath from Gippingstone Road to rear of Bramford PrimaryThe district council has quoted approximately £6,000 for the easement to allow the County to surface the path past Cherryfields to the rear of Bramford Primary School. The total cost now exceeds the available funding by a considerable amount so I have asked for the MSDC charges to be re-assessed. Lighting for the Bus Shelter that serves Hill View Business parkThe bus shelter on the Old Norwich Road is in a very dark spot and worries the employees at the park and the people at Growing Places. I have asked for a street light to be installed and now that we have found where the power feeds are it will be completed soon. SpeedingOne of the vehicle activated signs, the one in Barham, will be funded from this budget. Our project to settle the debate on the most effective way of reducing anti – social speeding is progressing well. Six vehicle activated electronic signs are now on order together with two additional speed guns and two new speed signs of the “Sid” type for the police. After examining the first crop of speed records from villages, the team decided to change allocations. Bramford will have enhanced police enforcement activity. Somersham, Gt Blakenham, Barham and Claydon will have one electronic sign each and Henley two signs due to the high speeds past the school and approaching the busy blind junction in the village centre. This is, in our view the best allocation based on present data but is not set in stone and may well be adjusted as the project progresses. This month we looked at the problems with alcohol consumption. Many of us enjoy a social drink but a minority take consumption to excess. I am sure we have all seen pictures of young people staggering about town centres and fights outside pubs and clubs. We tried to get a better grasp of the issue, particularly the cost to the individuals, the health service and the economy. Of these the cost of long term health problems was the most significant, some £26 Million for hospital admissions and £729,000 for A & E visits. A number of Health Service programmes are underway to identify people at risk earlier and get them the help they need. We were impressed by the trading standards actions to reduce sales to those under age and the responsible attitude of the Co-Op who are making their staff training programmes available to smaller retailers. The most obvious area for County activity is education. Schools, both primary and secondary have PSHE (Personal Social & Health Education), which covers issues like a sensible approach to alcohol, in the curriculum. Unfortunately it is not mandatory so some schools, we were told, don’t spend much time on it. We will be emphasising the importance of the subject to school governors. National Grid have been under pressure in Somerset as well as Suffolk to consider seriously a wider range range of options for reinforcing the grid. They have just released the following news release that shows some movement. Keep your fingures crossed.
I have visited one Incinerator at Heath Road Hospital and one MBT Plant at Donarbon in Cambridge http://www.donarbon.com/ How sad can you get? Our visit to Donarbon in Cambridge was interesting. The plant is still in its test phase prior to handover but was clean tidy, except for the festoons of video tape and from the outside looked like any other modern industrial building. Cambridge re-cycles high portion of waste through Peterborough and GT Blakenham. It treats garden waste by windrow composting and kitchen waste by in vessel composting. The output is sold to farmers and gardeners as the process is certified safe. Their “black bin” residual waste is processed by an MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plant to avoid paying LATS (Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme) penalties by stabilising the waste, reducing biological activity by 70%, as measured by oxygen take up. Suffolk has never appeared clear that this is so but it is: I checked the regulations. MBT plant output can be stabilised waste or refuse derived fuel that can be sold. We were that there is a market and this fuel and it is classed biomass as recyclate has been removed before burning takes place. The cost of the MBT plant is about £40 M under a PFI. Suffolk’s large mass burn Incinerator (sorry, Energy from Waste Plant) will cost a lot more in a 30 year £600 M PFI contract. Expensive flue gas clean up is required as black bin waste has a number of contaminants that must be extracted from the flue gas to tight EU regulations. (Three chears for the European Union). We were told that the best way to build a mass burn system is to go through MBT first taking the pollutants out before burning rather than spend a fortune extracting them afterwards. Ironically the number of large incinerators built is causing a shortage of waste and Incinerator operators in Europe are importing waste at Euro 20 per tonne to keep the beast running. Food for thought!
This link is essential in some form if we put windfarms in the North Sea but, as an overhead line, is damaging to our countryside, our environment and tourist trade. It is an eyesore least damaging alongside the present line. However an overhead line is not the only option. It is possible, at a cost, to put the cables underground. We are told that will cost at least 17 times the cost of an overhead line. Perhapse £26 million per kM instead of £1.5 million for 30 kM. Countries in Europe claim the cost ratio can be as low as 7 times. A further possibility would be to run the cables under the sea but that again is expensive We need to be sure the options have been analysed thouroughly and give full weight to the impact on our quality of life. As councillors we are preparing our response. You should make your views known through the consultation at the National Grid www site.
I have been concerned that the focus on converting three tier schools to two tier would absorb management effort and allow overall standards to fall. This year our schools have again not kept up with national improvement but at last the administration has responded to government pressure. The new school improvement plan identifies the issues, necessary improvements and most importantly the support schools need to make the changes. Our children deserve the best so this is a welcome but overdue step forward. |
 Loading ... |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2010 Published and promoted by John Field on behalf of the Liberal Democrats at Ebony, Upper Street, Baylham Ipswich IP6 8JR, Published by oa5.com
- All Rights Reserved |
||||||
