Crossing Woods Lane via the A12 cyclepath is difficult but safer than cycling on the A12
Safer roads for cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders?
You bet!
If you’re worried about the increasing danger of accessing our country roads, please please do respond to the proposed changes to The Highway Code to improve safety for vulnerable road users -particularly cyclists, pedestrians & horse riders
introduce a hierarchy of road users which ensures that those road users who can do the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger or threat they may pose to others
clarify existing rules on pedestrian priority on pavements, to advise that drivers and riders should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross the road,
provide guidance on cyclist priority at junctions to advise drivers to give priority to cyclists at junctions when travelling straight ahead
establish guidance on safe passing distances and speedswhen overtaking cyclists and horse riders
Don’t delay. Respond today. We have nothing to lose but an overwhelming sense of danger on many country roads.
Finally, at long last, masks will be MANDATORY on UK public transport from 15 June. Far too late of course – as is to be expected from this craven, risk-averse, milquetoast, chumocratic apology for a government – but hoo-blinking-ray anyway.
Masks help reduce covid transmission and so protect not only passengers but drivers.
33 bus drivers have died in London to date.
Why has this diktat taken so long? Well, you see, “masks undermine social distancing. Everyone knows that!” But everyone also knows that when the wind changes, your face stays that way. And eating crusts makes your hair curl.
Things everyone knows are not always true.
This week I challenged Suffolk’s Director of Public Health, Stuart Keeble, to supply the scientific evidence for the whole “masks undermine social distancing” story – which has been peddled in the UK at all levels. I called it an “urban myth”. He denied this. But has yet to come back to me with any scientific evidence whatsoever.
On the other side, Dr Greenhalgh – an Oxford Professor of Primary Care and passionate advocate of mask-wearing to reduce community transmission – has recently published this peer reviewed paper analysing the evidence behind counter arguments and shows it to be (at best) weak: Face coverings for the public: Laying straw men to rest//onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jep.13415
When I blogged in March (yes, you heard it, MARCH) on how to make your own masks– stating clearly they helped reduce transmission rather than infection and were particularly useful in taking pressure off scanty PPE supplies (and that the pattern was approved by local medics) – o lord, what a fuss there was from local keyboard experts! (A lot of the arguments that were made about this – now far from- controversial idea, are addressed and put to bed in Dr Greenhalgh’s paper.)
Yet it turns out from Suffolk’s latest figures on covid infection in care homes, that the virus must have come in via people from outside: visitors, deliveries, staff. Care homes were briefed fully on infection control. Transmission was their Achilles heel. Why were they, why were we not alerted to the benefits of wearing masks? The course of the pandemic might have run differently.
Here is an interesting table showing the path of infection in 4 countries – and when each made mask-wearing compulsory. Imagine if everybody in the UK had started wearing facemasks on the day I had blogged – instead of passing on remarks about incorrect usage (really, how hard is it to cover your nose and mouth?), how they reduced social distancing and so on.
Imagine, if instead of criticising Asia, we in the UK had taken a steer from them, and implemented face covering for all as well as hand washing and social distancing. I would then have not have been receiving emergency masks from anxious friends in China to give to all of us poor Suffolk people they saw as vulnerable and unprotected.
Virtual SCC meetings SCC is now holding some meetings virtually – including school transport panel appeals. Public meetings, or public sections of meetings can still be attended by members of the public. The link to the virtual meeting will be included on the agenda for the meeting. I have already sat on one virtual appeal panel.
If meetings are cancelled, the Chief Executive uses her emergency powers to make any necessary decisions on behalf of the Cabinet/Council through the delegated decision-making process. Details of any decisions made will be published on the SCC website.
Supply of PPE In light of increasing concerns about care home transmission/ infection, it is worth noting that SCC is supplying emergency PPE to primary care and other service providers who are unable or struggling to source their own supplies. This includes:
Adult residential and domiciliary care: care homes, personal assistants or homecare
Children’s Homes
GP surgeries
Secure Children’s Homes
Residential Special Schools
Court
Funeral Services
Local Authority: childrens social care, adult social care or healthy child services
Mental Health community/adult social workers
Hospices and Palliative Care
Primary Care
Pharmacists
Emergency Dentists
I have been assured by the director of Adult and Community Services that where taxi drivers are undertaking hospital transfers, they can also apply for PPE from the above source.
Donation of EU-compliant masks to Woodbridge from Xi’anGift of PPE from Xi’an, China I was able to hand a gift of EU-compliant medical masks to Deben View as a gift from concerned friends in China.
Covid Funding from Government Suffolk County Council has received £34.7m from the government to help with the council’s coronavirus response.
However, the council is currently forecasting that the financial impact of the crisis will be at least £56m (due to both extra expenditure and lost income) by the end of March 2021, and so more support from the government will be needed.
Finally, my group is having regular q&a sessions with the heads of highways, children’s services, adult services and public health. If you have anything you want to ask, I am happy to pass on your questions and ensure they get answered.
Street closures to protect walkers/cyclists exercising outdoors My LDGI group are encouraging Suffolk County Council to close roads that are used by residents to get their daily exercise, to ensure that walkers/cyclists can exercise safely and maintain social distancing.
The county council have indicated that they are willing to consider these closures and have already closed Ipswich Waterfront to through-traffic for 3 weeks.
If you have suggestions for roads that could benefit from a temporary closure, please let me know and I will pass it on to the Cabinet Member, along with suggestions for measures to encourage cycling and walking , especially as the Government has just announced emergency funding for this.
I have also raised my concerns about residents unilaterally deciding to block public Rights of Way, citing Covid as an excuse. At Martlesham Creek, the residents alongside PROW13 have coned off the Right of Way and are denying walkers access, because they are ‘self-isolating.’
Public rights of way are paths which the public have a legal protected right to use, and the County Council a legal duty to protect. They provide a healthy, safe and sustainable way to access the countryside and other local services. I have reported this to the County Council as one of several local attempts to prevent local walkers from enjoying legitimate and government sanctioned exercise.
Review of Suffolk ‘s County Council boundaries delayed The Boundary Commission has announced that it will be delaying its review of Suffolk County Council’s electoral arrangements and division boundaries. The Commission was due to publish its draft recommendations and consult on them in May-July 2020, with the intention of implementing the new electoral arrangements (including , we believe, a reduction in councillor numbers) at the 2021 local elections.
Given the delay to the consultation on draft recommendations, the new arrangements will now not be implemented until the 2025 elections. Given the situation we are currently in – and the uncertainty as to how or when it will end – to consider any current reduction in local representation would seem a very poor idea).
Cost of post-16 Home to School transport increases by £90 Plans to increase the price of post-16 school transport were approved by the Chief Executive using delegated decision-making powers, because the Cabinet was unable to meet.
The price of mainstream post-16 school transport has been increased by £90, whilst the price of post-16 transport for SEND students has increased by £30. This is despite the fact that a consultation on the proposed increase indicated that 75% of parents who responded felt that the increase would have an adverse impact on them.
Essentially, this is despite the fact that there is now a de facto SSLA (statutory school leaving age) of 18 as the law now requires all young people in England to continue in education or training until at least their 18th birthday. This places a particularly unfair financial burden on low-income families, most particularly in rural areas.
County claims that if families are concerned about their ability to pay for school transport, they can apply for the 16-19 Bursary Fund which is managed by post-16 provisions and may be able to support eligible disadvantaged young people by up to £1,200.. It is a limited budgett.
Increase in social worker pay Suffolk County Council has (finally) agreed to increase the pay of children’s social workers to match the remuneration offered by neighbouring councils, in order to attract and retain skilled social workers in Suffolk. It is estimated that this pay increase will cost £1.4m and will be funded from council reserves. I am pleased that the council has taken this step, because my group proposed this exact policy as part of our budget amendment in February.
Caroline Page, LibDem County Councillor for Woodbridge
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Finally, at long last, masks will be MANDATORY on UK public transport from 15 June. Far too late of course – as is to be expected from this craven, risk-averse, milquetoast, chumocratic apology for a government – but hoo-blinking-ray anyway.
Public rights of way are paths which the public have a legal protected right to use, and the County Council a legal duty to protect. They provide a healthy, safe and sustainable way to access the countryside and other local services. I have reported this to the County Council as one of several local attempts to prevent local walkers from enjoying legitimate and government sanctioned exercise.