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.
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.
Woodbridge has been asking for 20 mph zoning for years .
Speed calming and the Thoroughfare have been top issues for Woodbridge over the last weeks as I’ve been working with like-minded people from a number of fields to try and produce a global scheme to calm and improve traffic conditions across the town. Other issues of importance include Suffolk Norfold Devolution, now about to got to a final yea or nay vote, and the throrny question of the new telecoms boxes at the Sandy Lane junction,
Proposed 20mph zone & Thoroughfare calming in Woodbridge I have recently been working on initial – ambitious – proposals for speed calming in Woodbridge. These include :
a) the outline of the whole-town speed calming and 20mph zoning which Woodbridge Town Council will be discussing later this evening and which will hopefully be the foundation of a document that can finally be put before Suffolk County Council’s Speed Limits Panel and
b) the reforming of the Thoroughfare Working Party to try and tackle the continuing issue of the Thoroughfare, in relation to the roads around it.
I am grateful for the assistance and expertise of Nigel Barratt in examining the roads usage round the town in order to work on these issues.
I am hoping that the ‘Walkers are Welcome Woodbridge’ initiative will be supported by these proposals, and that they might link in with issues as diverse as the air quality work at Melton Hill, the passage of school children to school, and the rat-running from Wilford Bridge along the Ipswich Road – producing really joined up planning for traffic and tourism.
Conservatives lose their majority on Suffolk County Council With a LibDem win at the Hadleigh byelection last month, the Conservatives finally lost their precarious hold on Suffolk County council and are now a minority administration. The balance of power is now:
Conservative 37 – Labour 15; LibDem 8; UKIP 10; Green 2; Independent 3
Suffolk County Council’s vote on devolution deal – 23 November Suffolk County Council – together with all district councils – will be voting on the Suffolk Norfolk devolution deal at the end of the month. For the county council, this is:
The extraordinary County Council on 2pm 23rd November
The extraordinary Cabinet on 5.30pm 23rd November (or following the extraordinary Council meeting if later)
with the orders currently scheduled to be laid before Parliament on 24th of November.
The deal requires the 2017 election of a Norfolk & Suffolk Mayor, and the formation of a “super-authority” in which all councils from both counties would be represented equally.
This authority would have a budget of £100m to spend on an inflated governmental requirement for 240,000 new homes ( far more than required locally so presumably aimed at London overspill) for the next five years and would have new powers (but little new funds) to fund the required infrastructure programmes needed to support the development the deal requires.
Although Suffolk’s County Council and all its district & borough councils backed the principle of this devolution deal in the summer, in Norfolk the reaction was much less positive – four of the county’s seven districts (including Norwich City Council) voted to reject the deal .
New Telecoms boxes update After I raised the issue of the 5 telecoms boxes in Sandy Lane on both social media and BBC Suffolk, EE finally got in contact with the Suffolk Highways Officers. We are now in hope that the issue can be rectified without legal proceedings becoming necessary.
Parents urged to Have Their Say on New School Admissions Policy Suffolk County Council is seeking views from parents and carers on the proposed school admissions policy for the 2018/2019 academic year. There are proposals to make minor changes to the admission arrangements for schools in Suffolk and the policy aims to ensure school places are offered to children in a fair way. The consultation will run until Tuesday 13 December 2016.
Dutch Kitchenware Cold Callers Suffolk Trading Standards warn that they have had reports about (specifically Dutch) salesmen cold-calling door-to-door in Suffolk. They say these appear to be people who have targeted other areas in Britain.
The caller is typically a man selling knives, saucepans and cutlery sets that he claims that he has had left over from a trade fair. His story is that he needs to get rid of the products quickly because he is returning to Holland later in the day and cannot take them back through customs.
Although the products are described as being reasonable quality, trading standards are concerned that consumers may be paying over the odds and there are no customer rights. As ever they are concerned that undue pressure is put on elderly and vulnerable people.
Suffolk Trading standards ask that if anyone becomes aware of these (or other) salesmen operating in their area, to please contact via 03454 040506. They also remind Suffolk residents of the door stickers they supply to discourage cold callers.
Firebreak training in Hollesley Bay In late October I spent an afternoon at a ‘Firebreak’ passing-out parade at Hollesley Bay prison. This is a practical but inspirational programme taught by the fire brigade (Essex, not Suffolk, on this occasion) – and the first time ever this programme has been delivered in a prison!!
Outcomes were outstanding: 12 hard-to-reach prisoners of very different ages and backgrounds had worked together to become a team, learned the cooperative and practical skills needed in firefighting, got a serious qualification, and all reported they have gained a lot from the course.
This was resoundingly echoed by guards and instructors. I very much enjoyed watching the presentation drill, and talking to the participants and instructors afterwards.
Most interesting of all, the training started to introduce the subject of ‘restorative justice’ and met with such success that the team was returning to the prison to run some sessions specifically on this, with the same prisoners.
Huge plaudits all round: to the Shaw Trust for funding it, Essex Fire Brigade for delivering it, and of course, Hollesley Bay for having confidence to go ahead with this pioneering training in the first place
Caroline Page, LibDem County Councillor for Woodbridge
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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.