Just to let you know that Highways England will be starting night time highways work on the A14 in May, starting on the 11th and taking some 12 weeks in total. They will be replacing some 22km of lanes in total spread over the east and westbound carriageway between Stowmarket and Claydon, a task that involves some 20,000 tonnes of material. The resurfacing will be of the full depth of the road to ensure it then has a 20 year life.
Your County Councillors insisted they considered contraflow working but they demonstrated that the road is not wide enough to support that. Queues during the day would be long and if ther was a breakdown or an accident it would be very difficult to get to for rescue or vehicle recovery.
So there will be diversions between 8pm and 6am on to local roads for quite a number of weeks. There would be speed restrictions on the A140 24 hours a day to allow traffic to run on that during the day.
They would do eastbound first from Stowmarket (Tesco) to the A140 with diversions via Dis (starting at Bury St Edmunds) and via Stonham starting at Stowmarket for the six weeks this phase would take.
They would then do the A14 eastbound starting at the A140 towards but not all the way to Claydon for two weeks with a diversion via Barham and Claydon, Norwich Road and Ipswich Road. Clearly that is a significant disturbance but traffic volumes at night are much lower.
The next operation would be the westbound carriageway from Claydon towards the A140. This would take some four weeks with a night time diversion via Great Blakenham and Needham Market. West bound traffic would access the A140 via Claydon and Barham but trafic from the A140 wishing to go west would go via Stonham to Stowmarket.
We all agree that house building must match the growing population, and the government insist upon it. People are living longer, living on their own and emigrating to and within the UK to do vital jobs. However, new housing must be distributed in a way that does not destroy the Suffolk environment we all enjoy.
After much delay the new Mid Suffolk District Council Local Plan is at last nearing completion but just when will it be delivered? . It should have been produced much earlier to guide developers to locations that villages could tolerate.
The turmoil and chaos around national politics and the
Brexit disaster coupled with the need to focus on the District Council
elections have been a significant distraction this month. However, there is news from the County, a
mixture of good and bad to report.
Investment for Special Educational Needs
In February I reported that the cross-party Policy Development
Panel had recommended that the County invests £45.1m in SEND. This will develop new Special Educational
Needs & Disability schools and specialist units in Suffolk.
I am pleased to say that this plan is going to Cabinet during
April with a recommendation to proceed. Some
800 places in the county to provide pupils the support they need locally will
be a leap forward.
Children’s Centres
Less welcome is the news emerging from the cross party Policy
Development Panel on the Family Services.
Regrettably this panel appears to be pushed in the direction of
significant cuts. The proposals are
secret at the moment, and I can’t report how accurate the leaks in the press
are. However, this looks like an attack
on a successful service that has great value.
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