Friday 11th September 2009

Days starts with Bury Press Press. YES!! The Horsecroft Road Safety Group are in there. Sure, only page 27 but there they are. I totally support their quest for 20mph and traffic calming. Its a no-brainer if you actually go there and see how unpleasant it really is there.

Then off to Horringer Court Middle School. What a lovely building. And such orderly kids. Puts most workplaces to shame! Spent an hour with the excellent Head Tania Johnson. HCMS is due to close in 2013 when Middle Schools are to end in Bury St Edmunds. A difficult four years to bridge as staff leave and morale slips. An achievement chasm is due, believes Tania. I am to join the Board of Governors in October. Hopefully I will be able to help this school make the best possible job of taking itself out of existence. This is unfortunate and, in my view, unnecessary but Suffolk County Council Tories will not change their minds on this.

Next its West Suffolk House and a ten-point agenda to go through with County Engineer. Roads, pavements, safety issues right across Hardwick. The good news is that I think we might achieve something on the crossing on Hardwick Lane (near Wilks Rd. A Zebra crossing is £30k and we have a strong chance of getting it in the Transport Strategy for 2010-11 which will give it a much bigger chance of implementation.. A lot of the rest is just about making sure St Eds are doing the work committed to undertaking. Traffic calming for Horscroft Rd feels like a possibility. I just want a 20mph to start-off with calming later if necessary. The police will oppose without calming on the grounds that it isn't particularly enforceable. But in my view 20mph without calming is better than 30mph without calming and a start. Calming won't be cheaper than £20k.

Then on to meet young family in the Division trying to get their child assessed for a Statement of Special Educational Needs. Presently the Council won't even assess this child. I am helping the family to first challenge this then appeal to an out-of-country body if this goes nowhere.

Following this, I get embroiled in the page 3 story in the Bury Free Press. Southgate Community Centre has just evicted Fighting Fit, the martial arts company that has been running classes for 45 local kids each week for 20 years - all because they have complained about dirty floors at the Community Centre. Fighting Fit may have to relocate to another part of town and I am trying a) to persuade them to stay in this community and b) to find them an alternative venue.

Mid afternoon, I join two of our volunteers to go `Reaching Out', knocking on doors in Abbotsbury Rd and Kirkstead Close. We find quite a few people in. Most are surprised to find a Councillor calling outside election time. For those that are out we leave a Sorry We Missed You leaflet. Plenty of issues. Saddest was the case of an 82 year old WW2 hero distressed by drunken teens outside his house all hours of the night.

Finally I meet with Dan Gaul of Suffolk County Council Grounds Maintenance plus two residents to discuss the terrible state of the Glastonbury Rd play area. We get agreement to improve cleaning, to repaint the equipment, to replace bins and benches using some of my Locality Budget. All by the end of October.

A good day's work.