Update on plans for Sudbury Bus Station

I wrote a week or so ago about the controversy that appeared to be developing with regard to the redevelopment of the centre of Sudbury.

The plans developed by the Market Town Partnership, which would involve resiting the bus station, were, it appeared not being considered by the officers working on different options.

At the well attended AGM of the Partnership that I attended on Tuesday evening it was announced that Babergh's Malcolm Firth has given his assurance that the plans, which are supported by the Sudbury Society, will be given full weight. This is good news.

I continue to be concerned that the right solutions are found for those of us obliged to travel into Sudbury from surrounding villages.

No smoke without fire!

Great excitement yesterday afternoon when I noticed that a lot of smoke was coming out of the chimney when the fire in the grate below was barely alight!
Having sought a second opinion from my neighbours, I phoned 999 with a sinking heart. Visions of burly men with large hoses dowsing our lovely house flashed through my mind.
Within 7 minutes or so the Fire Brigade from Long Melford hurtled along Mills Lane with blue light flashing, attracting most of the local children and the attention of several dogs.
We’re not quite sure what caused the chimney fire. It was right up at the top of the stack and apparently was pretty hot. The cause was probably a bit of bitumen from the small amount of wood that we burn which had attached itself to the inside of top of the chimney over time.
I have to say that the service from the emergency services both on the telephone and from the firemen (all part timers) was absolutely fantastic. The five men did their utmost to do as little damage as possible and were totally supportive. They made some good down to earth suggestions about how to avoid a similar fire happening again, recommending throwing a glass (no more) of water on the fire below as first aid when a chimney fire is suspected. Once the fire was out we all had a cup of tea and the fire engine returned to Long Melford.
I won’t say that it was a totally stress free experience, but I do think we are really lucky to have such a great fire service. A big thank you to you all!

Woman calling women!

During the spin-fest that was the G20 Summit last week I was really bowled over by one event. This was the speech that Michelle Obama gave to pupils and staff at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington. Her advice to her mostly female audience was basically that it is ‘cool to be smart’, to work hard, not to skip classes. If you do this, she implied, you too could become the First Lady! (or even perhaps the first President of the USA).

You can hear some of the speech if you click on the link below:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/business/2009/g20/7980476.stm

Michelle Obama concluded part of her speech by saying that once you have followed her advice, worked hard and done well then you should:-

‘Reach back and help someone just like you to do the same thing’.

This really resonated with me because so often women do not help one another to get on in life, and I find this disappointing. Actually when I worked in the City we were so few that it wasn’t really an issue. Women there seemed to understand the old saying from Tobago that ‘Blowing out the other person’s candle will not make yours shine brighter’. However, the world of politics is something different. Women have seemed adept at extinguishing other women’s hopes.

The Conservative Party in this country has a reputation of being the home of a cadre of formidable ‘blue rinses’ in the shires who regularly fail to select women as candidates. The number of women MP’s in the Conservative ranks is disgracefully low. At Babergh District Council there are only seven women out of 43 councillors (and it shows!).

However things are changing, at least at the national level. David Cameron has worked hard to make sure that a good proportion of women candidates are elected. Vicky Ford, number three on the list of MEP candidates, was actually selected in the number 4 position. You may not think that this was right, but she was actively promoted because of the need to field some women who had some chance of becoming Members of the European Parliament.

I think some people are aware that I am the Chairman of the South Suffolk Conservative Women’s Organisation. On Thursday of last week we had our AGM and we were lucky enough to be addressed by the Chairman of the National Organisation, Pauline Lucas. She gave an inspirational speech too, telling us how the Conservative Party in general, and the Women’s Organisation in particular, is encouraging women to participate in political life.

It would be really nice to find some women out there who would like to put themselves forward for public office. Of course, if you are a Conservative that would be even better.

Do give it some thought.

A visit to London

Up in London today to support Nick who is training some Bankers to add up.

A bit late some of you may say!

Anyway to give you some local colour I am uploading some pictures taken by Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home (a website for obsessive Conservatives).

Interestingly there were quite a few pro-capitalist demonstrators and they seemed to be in one piece at this stage of the proceedings!

I took Rendle the Lurcher for his usual afternoon constitutional along the South Bank and we didn't meet with any trouble although a lot of police activity was evident and ambulances from as far afield as the West Midlands were standing by on Blackfriars Bridge.

Back to Suffolk this evening thank goodness!

A plea for plain words

There has been a lot in the press recently about jargon. Government bodies, and local government is no exception, have been criticised for the use of obscure words and expressions that seem virtually meaningless to normal human beings. In my view it’s not just the use of ‘government speak’; in reports the meaning of words is sometimes horribly abused and contorted.

I am afraid that Babergh officers sometimes fall into the trap, often when copying something directly out of a paper written by an apparatchik in central government. Recently I couldn’t resist picking someone up on the expression ‘a modern and diverse community’. What on earth does the much misused word ‘modern’ mean in this context? Modern does not really mean ‘up to date’, although people often use it in this way. Even if this were its meaning the use of the word in this context would be hard to decipher. Babergh’s worst sin however is the constant use by officers of acronymns, LDF*, AONB*, etc etc. which serve to confuse and delay anyone watching a presentation or reading a document.

A correspondent from Little Waldingfield feels the same! He writes:


‘After reading todays Mercury....Page 2, re: expenditure on various Sudbury projects, whatever happened to the Tesco money? That seems to have gone a little quiet.
Also who on earth came up with the name "Market town partnership steering group"
honestly, what council speak twaddle.

Anyway, yours in a stakeholding, strategic, consultative, pathfinding, digitational, diversifying, accredited, frameworking, supportive, engaging, sustainable, partnership, cascading, assessing, consolidating, standardising, vibrant, aware, community, factfileing, responsive, foundational, co-ordinating, structured, restructured, quality, targeting, neighbourhood, principled, projected, key, surgery, workshop, addressed, commitment, benchmarked, focused, projected, team, cabinet, implemented, accessible, emphasising, in an extrapolated, interpolated kind of way.’

The writer adds a postscript challenging Suffolk County Council and Babergh to try to make up a sentence including all the words above. Perhaps someone could be specially employed, he says, or perhaps someone already is!

*All readers will of course know that these mean Local Development Framework and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’.

What does the future hold for Sudbury Bus Station?

I sense that there is a storm brewing with regard to the proposed redevelopment of the Bus Station in the middle of Sudbury.

I have received two letters from Sudbury based organisations , The Sudbury Society and the Market Town Partnership Steering Group. Both are concerned that their carefully researched and planned ideas for the site already appear to have been rejected in favour of other options.

The main bone of contention seems to be whether or not the bus station should be moved from its current site, or form part of the new development. It seems that the proposals from the Market Town Partnership Steering Group, which are supported by the Sudbury Society, would involve re-siting the facility.

I am not privy to their deliberations on the matter, but reading between the lines, the local authorities concerned (Suffolk County Council and Babergh) appear to be doubtful as to whether moving the bus station is feasible. Speaking to a Babergh officer yesterday I was assured that ‘nothing has been ruled out or in at this stage’. However, there must be some basis for the local organisations’ concern.

I am not an elected representative for Sudbury. However, arrangements in the centre of Sudbury, particularly with regard to car parking and transport, are in some ways more important for the people in Waldingfield Ward who have to travel into town one way or another, than for those who live closer in. Therefore I think it is important to keep a close eye on what is happening to the transport system and car parking arrangements.

Additionally I do think that despite recent growth, Sudbury remains a very charming and unique place, and that it is essential that any plan for this important central site is well designed and complementary to the rest of town centre.

Once built the new development will have to last for many years (perhaps centuries!) It is so important to get it right! As regular readers know I do not think a lot of the new development in Bury. The style of architecture is very strange, the scheme does not merge seamlessly into the old part of the town and it presents a very ugly frontage to the world. I personally don’t want anything like that to be built in Sudbury.

Local Environmental Projects Update

It was such a lovely day today that Nick and I decided to go and have a look at the latest planting at Old School Wood, the community woodland project in Great Waldingfield . The final batch of trees was planted a couple of weeks ago, and the site now looks very impressive as can be seen from the picture above. I have to admit that I did not turn out to help on the day. I am really not a great enthusiast for physical effort, and my gardening endeavours at home can best be described as taking place in ultra slow motion.

We also took time to visit the Woodland BATS tree nursery in Chilton, which has been enhanced by the donation of a number of new trees, including some evergreens. We admired the nearby pond which has now been fully cleared and looks quite transformed.

We were very struck by the bench on the site donated by Waitrose. It is made entirely out of recycled plastic bags!