A happy new year to everyone!
It’s the time of year for making resolutions and predictions. I’m not intending to divulge my new year’s resolutions, mainly because I rarely manage to keep to them for more than a week or so. However, I am happy to try to make some predictions in respect of what might happen in Britain and in South Suffolk in 2010.
Last year incidentally my predictions weren’t too bad! In fact I had a 50 percent hit rate. Although I was right to say that Car Parking charges would not be imposed in Sudbury in 2009 and that the Belle Vue House protests would (temporarily) fade away, I did not predict the judicial interventions that have postponed Local Government reorganisation and, contrary to my expectations, Bretts Aggregates decided not to appeal against Suffolk County Council’s refusal of planning permission for a quarry at Chilton.
So looking ahead to 2010.....
First everyone knows that there will be a General Election this year. My prediction is that the Conservatives will win this with a majority of between 30 and 60. This is a mandate of sorts, but is not really enough to guarantee a trouble free passage for the tough measures that they will need to take. It is not impossible therefore that there will be two General Elections during the year. ( I don’t think that I can stand it!)
Secondly, we shall finally find out whether Local Government arrangements in Suffolk will stay as they are or whether a unitary system will come into being. My guess is that we shall actually ‘go unitary’ and that the last gasp of this Labour Government’s choice will be for One Suffolk. I shall be very pleased because this will enable me to start planning the rest of my life!
Thirdly, even if a unitary system is adopted, many people in Babergh will be adversely affected by the hard choices that will need to be made by the Council to bridge its financial deficit. It is fair to say that almost everyone in the District will be affected, whether they are connected to charities who will lose their grants, or are workers in Sudbury who have to pay for Long Term Parking. I am anxious to see that people do not suffer ‘double whammy’s‘ however, and I shall be asking hard questions about the situation where organisations have suffered both a loss of grant and the prospect of having to pay Business Rates for the first time due to the reduction of relief.
Fourthly, I fear that it is the year that the green agenda goes onto the back burner, as it is overtaken by other priorities related to the lack of money. This is I think something that we should all fight. I am, as many of you know, an agnostic about man-made global warming, but whether or not it is ‘good science’ it must be good sense to conserve the world’s precious resources and to fight to maintain biodiversity and a clean healthy environment.
