BROOMHILL LIDO FUNDING BOOST
Car parking charges in Ipswich are too high
Car parking charges at car parks managed by the Labour led Ipswich Borough Council are too high. I’m not surprised that the responses to my Town centre survey show that over 75% agree with this view. Only approximately 10% disagree.
When it comes to getting people into our Town centre there’re perhaps bigger factors. Such as fear of crime and anti-social behaviour. However I do think more effort should be done by the Labour led Council to ensure that car park charges are set competitively and in a way that allows us to better attract people to our Town centre and to take away disincentives. There’re plenty of examples across the region of different councils taking this approach and giving the Town centre or City centre they’re responsible for a much-needed boost.
There’re different approaches that could be taken. An across the board cut in the per hour rate or other approaches such as having the first hour free.
I appreciate that Council budgets are under strain but I don’t think that council finances should be propped up by a reliance on overly high car parking charges. This is a very counter productive and self defeating approach.
I have written to the leadership of the Borough Council making clear my views and sharing the responses to my Town centre survey on this important question. I wrote about it this week in my weekly column.
ORWELL BRIDGE UPDATE
Important meeting this morning with National Highways to discuss the recent chaos caused by the closure of the Orwell Bridge. I need to understand more about how this was all allowed to unfold in the way that it did and also to understand more about what steps are being taken to ensure this never happens again.
I was told that this was the first time there has ever been a partial closure of the bridge linked to inspection/maintenance. All other closures historically have been to do with weather and car accidents. I was also told this is the first time the specialist vehicle (platform crane vehicle) carrying out the inspection had suffered a “catastrophic failure”. There are only four of these vehicles in the country.
I understand that breakdowns happen from time to time but the most concerning thing has been the lack of resilience that led to the eastward bound section of the bridge being closed for well over 12 hours. The contractor National Highways use for these vehicles is called “WEMO-tech”. It’s clear to me that there response to the breakdown of the vechicle was unacceptable.
The failure happens at approx 12am (midnight) on 1 December. However it wasn’t until 9am that there was an engineer on the scene. We then had to wait until 6pm for an engineer for adequate specialist knowledge to arrive at the scene. He was then able to fix the issue and at 7 30pm the bridge was fully open. All in all therefore the eastward section of the bridge was closed for 17 and a half hours. Clearly totally unacceptable. However unusual it was for there to be a total breakdown of the vehicle in question and however specialist it was, this response time is beyond a joke.
I also asked why one lane was allowed to be open. They said it would have been safe for regular vehicles but not lorries. National Highways made a decision in conjunction with Suffolk Police that it wouldn’t be possible to separate lorries from regular vehicles. National Highways have said to me that they’re confident there will never be another partial closure of the bridge linked to maintenance again. From now on they’ve said WEMO-tech will have to ensure specialist engineers are actually on site when the inspections on the bridge take place. Meaning the response time if there are any issues will be vastly improved.
Myself and Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey also raised concerns about the diversion route used when there’re closures. I expressed my view that vehicles shouldn’t be diverted down Heath Road and Bixley Road.
A useful meeting. Pleased I know more about what happened on the day but it doesn’t provide a defence for what happened. I still feel a lot of the huge disruption caused could have been minimised far more than it was. However some signs lessons have been learnt and there will be more resilience in future.
Quote from Tom Hunt MP:
“It was a worthwhile meeting. I certainly feel like I know a lot more now about what happened that day and reasons why things unfolded in the way they did.
“I understand that accidents and breakdowns happen from time to time but that doesn’t mean the response to what happened was in anyway acceptable. Overall there was a time lag of over 17 hours between the specialist vehicle breaking down and the issue being resolved. I find it totally unacceptable that it took so long for an engineer with specialist knowledge to be on the scene.
“I was told by National Highways that this is the first time there has ever been a partial closure of the bridge caused by an inspection/maintenance issue. They also told me that from now on there will be a specialist engineer on-site whenever an inspection of the bridge is taking place to avoid a repeat of the chaos that happened on 1 December.
“Ultimately what happened causes great disruption to thousands of my constituents and so many businesses. There wasn’t enough resilience and it’s clear to me that certain steps could have been taken to minimise the disruption that was caused.
“However. I was pleased to hear that there is a clear plan from National Highways to ensure there is no repeat.”
Meeting with Associated British Ports
Town Deal Vision Board Meeting
Went to a Ipswich Vision/Town Board meeting. Keeping the pressure on to ensure all 10 projects are delivered to accelerated timescales. Progress has been far too slow over the past few years. Hoping for a lot more information to be made public soon. Including about the Paul’s silo building and what the plan is there.
Chance that work will finally commence on upgrading a number of local shopping parades over the next few weeks.
Pressed case for funding package to Broomhill Lido to be pushed over the line. And for a new strategy for the River Gipping.
There is a massive challenge with regards to our Town centre and we all need to work together to turn the situation around.
Local Businesses in Belstead Hills
Clifford Road Primary School Air Raid Tunnels
Town Deal update
It was good news for Ipswich when the Government confirmed we would be getting £25 million in new investment, covering 11 projects across the Town. During the last General Election campaign, the Town Deal was dismissed by local Labour as an “election bribe” that “would never happen”. So, I guess they were more surprised than anyone when the money was confirmed by the Government.
However, the reality is that a long time has now passed, and the majority of the projects still haven’t been delivered on the ground. Some have been delivered and are very near fruition, such as the Old Post Office Building transition to the Botanist, the new Health and Social Care Academy, a new tech centre at Suffolk New College as well as a new Sustainable Construction Centre. It’s also been good to see the Local Shopping Parades fund going out to public consultation. Sadly though, most of the projects, including some of the most eye-catching ones, still haven’t had their business cases submitted and are quite a long way off from being delivered.
There are many different reasons for this, clearly not having a Town Deal Board Chair for a long period of time was part of this, but in my view, the principal reason for this slow progress has been the poor performance of the Labour led Borough Council.
Last week the local government Minister Dehenna Davidson had to take the step of sending a formal letter to the new Chief Executive of the Council requesting a formal meeting. Make no mistake, this was because of the slow, poor performance of the Labour led council.
This follows the Council effectively being stripped of the responsibility for developing the business cases with new external consultants being brought in to ensure the tight deadlines are met.
As much as Labour figures locally moan about a lack of Government investment. The reality here is that it’s the incompetence of the locally led Labour council that risks Ipswich missing out on millions of pounds of much needed investment.
A number of senior people who have been involved in several different Town Deals across the region are of the view that our own Town Deal has been one of the worst performing.
As the local MP I sit on the Town Deal Board but when it comes to the technical deal that sits behind key business cases, we’re in the hands of professional officers and the civil service. However, due to the extent of the failings by the Labour led Council both myself and my colleague Dan Poulter have become sucked into the detail in a way few other MPs have had to. Fortunately, with the new external consultants involved I can see a pathway to all outstanding issues being resolved and us meeting all relevant Government deadlines to secure the money.
I would like to see this as a cock-up not conspiracy. It would be depressing to think that key figures in the local Labour Party had put politics before what’s best for the Town. When some have suggested to me maybe there has been a deliberate tactic at play by key Labour figures to frustrate the delivery of the Town Deal, I have said this I’m confident this isn’t the case. Such behaviour would be unforgivable.
The reality is if the Town Deal is a success, we’re all winners. Everyone in the Town.
The simple truth though is that the local Labour led Borough Council need to do far better when it comes to bidding and managing large scale projects. They need to do what they need to do in order to ensure they’ve got the resources and the expertise they need to deliver. If they fail to learn the lessons from this episode there will only be one set of losers, the people of Ipswich.
St Nicholas street pedestrianisation and energy bills
It was a pleasure to visit businesses on St Nicholas Street last month. In addition to speaking about plans for pedestrianising the street, concerns were also raised with me about energy bills. I know that in addition to domestic users many local businesses, across the Town, have really struggled with energy prices. I also know that many have been frustrated when they see wholesale prices fall but they themselves aren’t yet feeling the benefit of this.
It will feed through in time, but it is vital this happens as soon as possible. Recently I spoke in the chamber and I was pleased to hear that the Secretary of State shares my views and is working to deliver the outcome we all want.