County « John Field's News & Views

Park and Ride passengers plummet

We Lib Dems today revealed that the Park and Ride service has seen a huge fall in passenger numbers since the Bury Road site was closed at the beginning of 2011.

The County originally predicted that when they closed the Bury Road site around half of the passengers would transfer to either London Road or Martlesham. Prior to the closure at the beginning of 2011, a total of 1,000,000 passengers were using one of the three services every year. There were 300,000 passengers using the Bury Road site in the final year of its operation. The total number of passengers has now dropped to 500,000 per year.

In 2011, not only did the Conservatives close the Bury Road Park and Ride site, but they introduced a charge for over 60s, and made them wait until 9.30am before they could use their bus passes. The Ipswich Park and Ride service was introduced when we ran the council in coalition with Labour. It has always been highly valued, but the Conservatives seem determined to destroy it.

We fought a campaign to keep the Bury Road site open. We carried out a survey of passengers, organised a petition and made the Cabinet reconsider its decision. They would not change their minds and they failed to look at the full implications of the closure. This dramatic fall in passenger numbers has major implications for Ipswich. We have no way of measuring how many people now drive into Ipswich, or avoid it altogether. In this difficult economic climate, and with the advent of online shopping, town centres need all the help they can get.”

In detail, figures for the London Road and Martlesham Park and Ride sites are:

Total passengers 03 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 - 557,665

Total passengers 04 April 2010 to 02 April 2011 – 749,176

Total passengers 05 April 2009 to 03 April 2010 – 769,666

The figures also include those travelling on concessionary passes which gave free travel until 1 April 2011 & half price travel after this date.

Bury Road was still operational until January 2011. Its all tickets breakdown was:

For 2007/08 192,000

For 2008/09 245,000

For 2009/10 306,000

This meant that in the year 2009 – 2010, there were a total of 1,075,666 users of the Park and Ride service in Ipswich

Cock Alley to Gippingstone Road

County Highways are at long last constructing a footway to link Cock Alley to Gippingstone Road to allow parents to use the path to get to the school without getting muddy. The work will start on the 23^rd July and take approximately a week.

I was asked for this by the team that look at safe travel to school some years ago but it has been an uphill struggle to get the land transferred from Mid Suffolk District Council.

The county say that noise and dust will be kept to a minimum and the work should not affect vehicles and pedestrian access.

The footway will be constructed along the right side of the left hedge above and will be two metres wide leading to the existing footway

If you have any specific requirements, such as disability access, or deliveries planned for this date, please contact the contractor, Suffolk Highways Contracting 01473 588640.

If you have any queries about these works, contact (0845 606 6171) and ask to speak to Aaron Gordon

National Grid latest route proposals for Bramford to Twinsted

Today Natrional Grid announced their latest position on the Bramford to Twinsted Tee connection that will be needed to take power from the North Sea windfarm East Anglia One and Sizewell C (if it is ever built) to London.

Local groups, the Libdems, the MP, County Council and District Councils have all been fighting to get National Grid to use modern technology to underground this connection that will otherwise blight our lives, damage our tourist industry and be out of date before it comes into use.

Have they adapted their plans? Well, two short sections through the Dedham Vale AONB and the Stour Valley will be underground but the residents closer to Bramford, particularly in Hintlesham, are still cursed with a double 400kv pylon line.

National Grid, this is just not good enough. Minimising cost at the expense of so many is not acceptable. Why not go for undergroiund DC connections like the windfarm companies are proposing? There is time to re-think, Sizewell C will only be constructed if the French Government decide it is good business and the final three parts of East Anglia One are some time away. The re-vamped existing line which will carry some 6,200 Mega watts will do till then.

Latest National Grid Data is at http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/MajorProjects/BramfordTwinstead/Documents/index.htm

Suffolk Broadband Residents Survey

The campaign Better Broadband for Suffolk continues with the launch of a survey for residents, aiming to gather support, information about the current level of internet provision and the desired speed. If you wish to complete the survey, and you have access to the internet, head to http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/broadband. For those without internet access, surveys are being distributed to parishes and libraries. In addition to the residential survey, the business survey is still up and running at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SuffolkBusinessBroadbandSurveyI would encourage you to respond to the survey to ensure that areas that have poor broadband connections are identified and we can all benefit from faster internet speeds in the future.

Petitions

Three petitions that had met the 3500 signature threshold were presented to the County Council on Thursday. The petitioners made very cogent logical cases against closure of country parks,closure of household waste recycling centres and the stopping of the eXplore card for young people.

For six minutes on each petition Councillors made brief debating points ( I covered country parks as two picnic sites due to be divested are in my area) and then each portfolio holder responded saying essentially that ther will be no action in response to the petition.

This was not much of a reward for all the effort. Where was the commitment to localism? It appears that no further notice will be taken but input from so many people deserves at least a thorough review of. the subject by scrutiny. I will work on that.

Flowton-Power from East Anglia One

Last night at the Flowton Parish Meeting the developers of the major wind farm East Anglia One off the Suffolk and Norfolk coast, Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Wind Power gave a detailed presentation. They are seeking a route to connect the power from the 7.2Gwatt windfarm to the national grid at Bramford. The farm will be built in six phases of 1.2 GWatt each, about the power of Sizewell B. Their intention they said was to bring the power ashore somewhere between the Deben and Orwell and route underground cables either north east or south west of Ipswich. Continue reading Flowton-Power from East Anglia One

Rede Wood after our meeting with Jane Storey

We had a useful meeting with Jane Storey on Friday night. At the end both parties had a better understanding of each others position and of what should be done better next time. We have insisted that the Friends should be involved in any management committee for the Local Nature Reserve and our continued belief that ownership by a public or trust body would be in the best interests of local people. With the Government responding to pressure and changing direction we remain hopefull.

Continue reading Rede Wood after our meeting with Jane Storey

Fire Control move to Cambridgeshire

The Conservative dominated Public Protection committee has endorsed the decision to move Suffolk’s Fire Control to Cambridge, in spite of the views of all opposition parties that the decision was premature and ill considered.

Liberal Democrats at Suffolk County Council challenged the Cabinet decision which was originally made on 7^th December and called it in to be reconsidered a special meeting of the Public Protection committee. The control room, which is located at the former Colchester Road Fire HQ has to move to allow the County to sell the property. A number of options for a new control had been considered, including relocating to the former Police control room at Adastral Park or the secondary control room in Felixstowe. However these were dismissed in favour of the move to Cambridgeshire. Only 8 of the 23 control room staff will be required by Cambridgeshire and they will face a 150 mile round trip to work each day. Continue reading Fire Control move to Cambridgeshire

Incinerator or “Energy from Waste” in Gt Blakenham

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.

Road improvements

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.

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