The pedestrian/cycle refuge island at the top of Ipswich road which I have been pressing for for a couple of years, is finally being built as i write . I have funded from it from my Quality of Life funding.
The solar-powered flashing ‘30 ‘sign for halfway down Ipswich Road (just before the blind bend) which I have also been fighting for since I was first elected has been ordered and should be installed shortly. Again this was funded from my Quality of Life money.
Once these are in place we need to revisit the difficulties with speeding in Suffolk and look at what needs to happen next.
I’m very very pleased to be able to announce the temporary closure of Footpath 6 Woodbridge (Martlesham Creek) from Kyson Point westwards to Footpath 11/12 Martlesham for resurfacing! This mudbath stretch of the path is a nighmare for walkers in all but the driest weather, and I have ben pestering the relevant officer for a while now to see what she could do.
Hopefully its closure until February for proper building up and resurfacing of the quagmire it has become will result in many happy years walking for both residents and visitors!
Eh? In what way can a flashing electronic sign enhance Woodbridge? We already have too many road signs, now this? Bloody horrible. Why not look to solve the speeding issues – do you really think a flashing sign will make anyone who speeds actually slow down, or will a flashing sign distract them on a blind bend? As a cyclist, I’d rather have speeding drivers looking at the road, not suddenly looking at a flashing sign when they’re going around a blind bend. Does anyone think things through here?
As for resurfacing of the footpath, it’s the countryside! This is what it’s like here. What’s wrong with wearing a pair of wellies/walking boots? Bang goes one of my kids favourite Sunday afternoon muddy walks, thanks.
All opinions welcome (although yours is definitely a minority). However, what a shame you didn’t contribute to this debate when it was going on, instead of waiting till the decisions were made and then knocking them, eh?
The entire process has been aired extensively through this very blog over many months and I specifically asked for comments and suggestions for spending my QOL budget back at the beginning of this financial year. If you had made a proposal then it could have been considered.
However, if you have any concrete proposals for the roads within the Woodbridge boundary you can can put in proposal for QOL spending next year (assuming the budget hasn’t been cut).
As you must realise, local government isn’t a case of ‘you people’, it is a case of ‘we people’. And if you don’t feel the people who represent you – at town council, district council or county council level – are making the right decisions, the best thing to do is to stand for election yourself and do a better job.
The ‘Be a Councillor Campaign’ aims to promote interest and involvement in democracy and in getting members of the public interested in becoming a Councillor.
There is a : which provides more detail about the campaign.
And if you wish to have a say in future why not make constuctive proposals whilst the democratic process is going on!
As regards your comments about the footpath, I assume you are joking, but if your children really prefer getting bogged down in mud, they will on ly have to follow the footpath further round the estuary where there remains plenty to spare.
Thanks for looking like you’ve replied. However, do you think, as a cyclist yourself, that drivers attention would be better directed at the road than at a flashing light/sign?
Secondly do you think that the flashing sign will enhance Woodbridge in any way?
It’s all very well having these issues discussed on this blog, but as a resident of Ipswich Road this posting was the first time I’ve heard of them.
The footpath comment was only 1/2 in jest. There are plenty of paved footpaths in the area, what’s really so wrong with having some left which reflect the changes on the landscape wrought by the seasons?
Right: One at a time
A light that flashes a warning for those cars travelling too fast will first and foremost give us a chance to slow traffic before a blind bend beyond which – goodness knows how – permission has been granted to put a new downhill drive from five new houses. I am deeply anxious about the possible outcome of this decision….
And as a cyclist, any means of slowing traffic down is, to my mind, a benefit. Once this solar powered light is in place (together with the refuge island) we will see what impact has been made on traffic and what else needs to be done (as it says in my last report to Woodbridge Town Council). Ideally I would like Woodbridge to become a 20mph town..
Secondly, I don’t think a flashing light will not enhance Woodbridge. I agree there are plenty of signs, but if you look around you, there is a much greater preponderance of private signage (generally for businesses or new developments, particularly down at the Notcutts roundabout) than there is of road signs. A few less of the former and you might get more benefit out of the latter!
Thirdly, I put these things in my blog to make sure they get aired – but they are in my reports to Woodbridge Town Council too. As regards the flashing light I also told the Neighbourhood Watch residents using the speed gun on Ipswich Road, and a few residents as I met them. I am not sure I can think how much further I could reasonably promulgate it without a use of council time and resources that people would lambast me for wasting. (People living close to any highway scheme do get consulted as a matter of course, by SCC Highways.) Maybe you can suggest another avenue?
Finally the footpath. Rest assured – there is no suggestion of ‘paving’ the footpath, which would be terrible. The part I mean (which runs along Martlesham Creek from Kyson Point halfway to the sewage farm turn off) has – as you will know if you walk it often – a nasty habit of becoming pretty well impassable in wet winter months. The resultant tramp feet over mud has worn the embankment right down making the problem worse year by year. SCC manages its footpaths prettyaesthetically on the whole. Rebuilding up an embankment (which is, itself, of relatively recent origin) will not negate the impact of the seasons on the path, but will prevent the unwary pedestrian from becoming a permanant part of it..