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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 Primary
The 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 park
The 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.
Speeding
One 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.
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.
The County is developing “Suffolk Flexicare” which it states, aims to “to focus planners and expert providers on the needs of an ageing population, to bring innovation and more flexibility helping people to remain independent”. This will bring change across the spectrum of care and has both good elements and risk to existing services. I hope that good proven conventional services will not be jeopardised by spend on politically correct innovation.
We are planning to trial vehicle activated electronic signs in the area and measure their effect. I am working on this in a group involving the Police and County Highways. We intend to settle the debate on the most effective way of reducing anti social speeding at an acceptable cost. This will lead to less argument and more action.
The plan is to run the trial in Bramford, Claydon, Gt Blakenham, Henley and Somersham using several approaches. We should have two semi permanent, solar cell powered, 30 mph signs that illuminate when vehicles pass at more than the speed limit and one that displays a vehicle’s speed. There will also be extra speed guns in each Safer Neighbourhood Team area.
One additional permanent sign in this area will be funded by my locality budget for road improvements
At the last meeting of the County Council the Liberal Democrats attempted to sign the council up to the 10:10 campaign, a pledge to show leadership and reduce our carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.
Surprisingly the debate led to the discovery that a number of Conservative members are not convinced that climate change is actually happening! You would think that the almost universal scientific acceptance would have convinced all but those with vested interests.
Instead of a 10% reduction in one year then returning to the administrations target of 4% they stuck to the Greenest County target of just 4% per year
The County Highways road safety team has obtained funding to install traffic signals at the B1113 Bramford Road junction in Gt Blakenham. They will control traffic from the Claydon Roundabout turning right towards Gt Blakenham and that from Bramford preventing further serious accidents and fatalities. We should see the signals in place around the end of the financial year.
Last year The Suffolk County Public Protection Scrutiny Committee which I chair set up a working party to investigate the strategy set up after the five murders in Ipswich. We wanted to know whether it had been effective, if it was delivering benefits to young women in the same position as the victims, benefits for residents of the neighbourhoods effected and if the strategy was to continue. Ann Whybrow, County Councillor for Stowmarket South chaired the working party, and ensured the task was well done and came to a sound set of recommendations.
It was good to receive, with Ann on June 9th, the Centre for Public Scrutiny’s Overall Impact through Scrutiny Award – chosen by the whole judging panel, on behalf of Suffolk County Council, Ipswich Borough Council and Suffolk Police Authority for the Review of the prostitution strategy. Of course a number of other agencies, individuals and dedicated front line officers contributed to the scrutiny review as they had to the formulation of the strategy and carrying it out.
I hope our efforts contributed in a small way to ensuring the work to help people improve their lives in the aftermath of the terrible events, continues.
I am pleased to let you know that I was re-elected as County Councillor for Gipping Valley. The results were
Liberal Democrats 1250 John Field
Conservatives 739 John Whitehead
Suffolk Together 715 Michael Blakenham
Labour 160 Terry Wilson
Thank you to all who voted for me and to the Lib Dem Team who helped me write and deliver our leaflets, particularly Martin Redbond and my wife Kay. The leaflets I hope let you know what I have delivered over the last four years and the focus for the next four or the period up to a unitary council.
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