County Council Election tomorrow, don’t forget to vote it’s vital for democracy. I am the Liberal Democrat Candidate. I enjoy representing you and I hope you will vote for me.
I have kept you informed through “In Touch” over the last four years letting you know what I have delivered, what the challenges are and what the County is trying to do.
Do you feel I have worked hard enough for you to select me again? I hope so and look forward to a tough four years as the UK changes its position and influence in the world and the County makes its contribution.

For the next four years, My targets will be:

• To continue to deliver on local issues and needs, tackling problems that impact directly on your life.
• To organise a Gipping Valley effort to develop a plan for our highways that will allow the housing expansion necessary to meet local needs without creating road chaos.
• To continue to insist Highways respond to your needs effectively and maintain out roads well.
• To make sure public transport and park and ride schemes are not further damaged,
• To ensure the County makes the maximum commitment it can afford to social care, reducing the impact on the NHS of unfulfilled need and using, not hoarding in reserves, the funds it has.
• To help local groups support and construct new facilities in the area.
• To remain deeply involved with improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of County services.
• Advocating investment where it will cut long-term costs, improving quality of life and reduce demand for services.

John Field

The plans to expand Claydon Primary to 2.5 form intake to cope with children from Blakenham Fields are almost ready to discuss with local residents.

The main resident concern will I am sure be parking and safety at the school entrance.  Busy parents or carers need to drop children off on their way to work, so they dont have time to walk to school despite the benefits the exercise brings.

If we could find money to resurface the car park at the recreation ground it would be more attractive.  The footway to the school would make it a safe option but the cost would be high.  We must get an estimate to see how big the task would be.

Unfortunately there is no space for a drop off point, a drive through school, where children could be handed to staff!

Lots of people to talk to in Acton Road today, detailed views to soak up and tasks to do.  Potholes were the main complaint.  How is that they are repaired but fail in days or at best a few weeks?  Highways claim they are doing far more repairs as planed work with much less reactive temporary fixes but people are not seeing an improvement.

It is amazing how County Highways can take so long to fix the potholes in places like Bacon Road, the approach to Claydon Primary School and Chapel Lane.  The road surfaces need replacement but remain in a sorry state.  Other roads are re-surfaced when they appear quite OK.

If there was an explanation (not an excuse) that we could see we might understand

Suffolk is one of four two-tier areas invited by the government to bid to run functions currently delivered by the government.  In return, Suffolk would need to deliver agreed and improved outcomes without increasing costs.

The Suffolk Public Sector Leaders’ group, health, police and the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership have constructed the bid.  They believe that by having more control over what goes on in the county, we can deliver better outcomes for all of Suffolk’s communities.

Local knowledge and expertise of councillors will lead to more effective decision-making on issues that affect Suffolk’s communities.

Summarising a 14 page document is difficult but I believe the essentials are:

The bid proposes “a new Public Sector Board, a simple development and continuance of the current Suffolk Public Sector Leaders Group”.  This would organise the efforts of the current Local Enterprise Boards, County and District councils, Health, Police and perhaps the local employment and pensions service.

The leaders want:

• More autonomy and certainty on funds such as New Homes Bonus;
• Devolution of funding and decision making for investment in a modern transport system with a secure future;
• Devolved multi-year settlements for health, care and safety;
• The devolution of decision making over European Structural Funds;
• Further Enterprise Zones focussed on agri-tech, food and drink and ICT and enhancement of the Growth Hub;
• Devolved responsibility for the Apprenticeship Grant and successor schemes
• Freedom to establish a new local employment service which can deliver Universal Credit;
• First rights on government estates in Suffolk.

They promise

• 70,000 new homes by 2031;
• 5,000 new apprenticeships by 2020 and a further 2,500 in Suffolk by 2025
• A radically different approach to local public service finances where greater local autonomy creates an environment that supports investment, is more sustainable and less reliant on central grants;
• To increase Suffolk’s total annual Gross Value Add by a third to over £18 billion by 2025;
• To provide more effective and joined up planning so we can use assets to invest in growth and transformation
• They would design a new local employment service that helps people to progress into work and reduces dependency on benefits
• To invest in infrastructure to stimulate growth such as delivering on the commitment to 100% coverage of superfast broadband by 2020

Councils will agree these proposals across the county and, if all goes well, they will have been submitted to government on 24th September.

If government accepts the bid, it will have an important impact on us all.  I believe it looks rather light on a believable democratically controlled structure capable of driving the improvements promised.  It also appears to confuse wishes, wants and intentions but it will develop and I hope succeed.

Well, it is time to vote!  The Tory elite have told the population how they must vote, lets see how obedient we all are.  Its rather like the divine right of kings that Charles 1st believed in.  Now the divine right of Tories.

Nationally will we get enough seats to remain the source of the fair and sound policies of the centre ground or will the people who are intent on punishing us for the way they voted in 2010 succeed.  Will they find they have punished themselves by voting for greater austerity that stops the economy in its tracks again?  Will the NHS and Care services suffer even more and the mental health transformation that Nick Clegg and Norman Lamb have started come to rapid end?

In the district elections I will find if the people who tell me I have worked hard and delivered well are in the majority of those who chose to vote.  An exciting wait until tomorrow afternoon.

1.  Provide good quality , well designed and energy efficient housing in the right locations for local need.
2.  Improve roads and infrastructure to meet local needs and as part of new strategic developments
3.  Protect the environment and open spaces to improve quality of life
4.  Support renewable energy initiatives which are right for our area
5.  Encourage more recycling to reduce waste and work towards a food waste collection
6.  Upskill local workforce to help local economy and attract new investment
7.  Provide faster broadband to connect all of our rural communities
8.  Improve public transport particularly to remote rural locations
9.  Support individuals to take more responsibility for their health and well being
10.  Improve council services and maintain good public access to the council

Canvassing always feels a bit strange “will you vote for me?” but it is good to talk to people who are studying the options and not making their decisions lightly.  Explaining that there are two district councillors in Bramford and Blakenham and one MP for Central Suffolk North Ipswich prompts questions about the County.  Why both the Parliamentary and District election but not the County?   Why am I not having to fight for my county council position.  How is it that there is a Labour candidate for Parliament but not for the district?

What is the district responsible for?  It is easy to overlook those that are managed without problems.

The List is

Waste Collection

Council Housing: managing the letting of the existing stock and organising decoration and upgrades.

Planning, determining where we would like development and then assessing proposals against policies and saying yes or no.

Environmental health particularly checking places where food is processed or sold.

Leisure facilities such as Stowmarket Leisure Centre and sports grounds.

Licencing of pubs and clubs

Does the council try to ensure developments protect the environment, are energy efficient, well insulated and use renewable energy?  It does but it is an up hill struggle to get improvements that increase cost, even by a small amount.

• Inheritance tax cuts for millionaires
• Scrapping help with housing costs for young people
• Weakening arrest warrants for people who have fled overseas
• Firing workers at will, without any reasons given
• Regional pay penalising public sector workers outside London and the South East
• Privatising the motorways and key A-Roads
• The Snoopers’ Charter
• Bringing back the old O-level / CSE divide
• Profit-making in state schools
• Cutting the time childminders can give to each child
• Cutting new nursery buildings
• Stopping geography teachers telling children about how we can tackle climate change
• Axing human rights from national curriculum
• Ditching the Human Rights Act
• Watering down the ban on hunting by allowing 40 dogs to flush out a fox
• Weakening the protections in the Equalities Act
• Renewing Trident in this Parliament
• Scrapping Natural England
• Cutting investment in green energy
• Nation-wide immigration checks on all new tenants and lodgers

Long discussion with a resident about the difficulty young people who want to purchase have getting the deposit together and affording a mortgage.  Mid Suffolk wants to encourage house building, encouraged by the “New Homes Bonus” that gives them money equal to the council tax for every new home built.  This payment lasts for six years and is, at the moment about £2.4 a year, a big incentive.

The big problem is that existing house owners don’t want Suffolk to change and are frightened that houses will be built without the infrastructure to support them: Schools, Doctors Surgeries, Bus Services and so on.  Just what must we do to build trust?  Using our New Homes Bonus to help provide the infrastructure would be a good start.