John Field's News & Views

Cock Lane Bramford

John Field — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:06:50 +0000

This year I managed to get the County and District Councils to finally sort out the difficulties that were preventing the placing of a tarmac surface on the Cock Lane path to the back of Bramford Primary. However I wondered if the time for this improvement had passed. Yesterday I was very pleased to meet a large group of mums and [...]

Park and Ride passengers plummet

John Field — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:17:36 +0000

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 [...]

The County Council Election

John Field — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:12:08 +0000

You will have all received a Focus leaflet covering my achievements over the past four years, the concerns I have about the Conservative administrations focus on externalising services and cutting services in a way that damages the economy and the things I would like to see done differently. Pointing out the mistaken policies unfortunately sounds negative but can’t be avoided. Suffolk [...]

Highways Procurement

John Field — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:35:13 +0000

You will recall that in previous Parish Reports I stated that the County Council had agreed a contract with Balfour Beatty to provide the highways services across Suffolk but that there had been a last minute problem. The County Council has now provided an update.

“In December 2012, Suffolk County Council announced Balfour Beatty Living [...]

Suffolk Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy

John Field — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:35:10 +0000

The Suffolk Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy is a requirement under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It has been produced by the new division of the council working with the National Health who up to now have been responsible for this activity. It will focus on four strategic themes:

Every child in Suffolk [...]

Report to Gipping Valley February 2013

John Field — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:44:35 +0000

Budgets: The County budget was passed on 14th Feb.

The headline announcement was a promise to freeze council tax for four years. In a time of austerity we don’t want demands on our income to rise but this looks like a pre-election give away. Who will suffer and will other changes make it possible?

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Highways

John Field — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:08:51 +0000

The final agreement to outsource highways services to Balfour Beatty in a £200m contract lasting five years was made at cabinet. The company was to be responsible for the design and implementation of highways maintenance and improvement works, winter gritting, street lighting, traffic signals and bridge work throughout the county. However they have pulled out [...]

District Council Budget

John Field — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:01:23 +0000

The initial analysis by officers indicates that a balanced budget will be possible adding slightly to reserves without moving from the position defined during the current year. Savings from redundancies already determined but not yet all implemented should be sufficient.

There are to be major changes this year in council tax rebates and housing benefits, [...]

County Council Budget

John Field — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:58:18 +0000

We now all know the content of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in outline and the details of the settlement for the County and District Councils were released the 19th of December. The financial officer’s analysis of the impact on Suffolk has been completed and the budget proposals will be considered at Cabinet tomorrow then at [...]

Road Safety

John Field — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 14:22:46 +0000

Road Safety is always an issue but my “Quality of Life” road improvement budget is very limited. However this year we have surfaced Cock Lane and placed “no parking” markings to make it easier to exit the St John’s Ambulance premises in Bramford. We will be installing “Halo” rings round the heads of the Belisha [...]