I see that Ipswich Hospital made £1.3million from parking charges last year. What a brilliant means of encouraging people to use sustainable transport instead!

O, hang on a moment…

…Woodbridge has no sustainable transport whatsoever that can get you to Ipswich hospital  and back for the evening visiting hour – or get you anywhere near the hospital on Sunday or bank holidays. In Woodbridge our hospital-visiting choices are stark:: cycle a twelve mile round trip, pay to park, or stay at home!

As well as being a large source of income to the hospital, this  should be a huge source of shame and embarrassment  to the Suffolk County Council administration as a whole, to the Portfolio holder in question,  and to the Council Officers  involved in this kind of bum decision-making  (one of whom had to listen to me rant and rave for a good twenty minutes the other day when he was hoping to eat lunch instead. I pointed out that there was hardly one of the decision-makers who even knew what the inside of a bus looked like and explained that I would like to be a good fairy so I could smite them with a few month’s chronic epilepsy or some other condition that leaves one unable to drive, together with an insufficient income to employ someone else.  THEN, said I, you would really have an understanding of what your decisions really feel like. I didn’t get much of a response).

It was less than a month ago that the last evening buses left Woodbridge – forever, as far as SCC were concerned. And they STILL have the nerve to send out “Greenest County” press releases.

SCC LOVES to send out its mixed messages in worn-out  management-speak cliches.  So here’s one back for them to ponder over:

“Why don’t you learn to walk the walk as well as talk the talk? ” This level of decision-making is as joined-up as a 4-year old’s first sentence!