Nigel Bennett

Sudbury and Great Cornard Safer Neighbourhood Team and Babergh District Council will be speaking to members of the public about their feelings of safety in Sudbury this Thursday 4^th February, as part of the current knife crime awareness campaign. The campaign, being run in partnership by Suffolk Constabulary and Babergh District Council, has a number of different strands, including school visits, community engagement, working with licensees to ensure knives are not taken into licensed premises, and a knife amnesty.  The police pod will be on the Market Hill between 9am and 3pm on Thursday. People visiting the pod will have the chance to complete a survey as well as watch DVD presentations on the consequences of carrying knives and find out more about safely depositing knives in the two secure amnesty bins outside Sudbury Police Station and the Stevenson Centre in Great Cornard.

“Knife crimes are very rare in our community and I hope residents will be reassured and join with the Police to make sure such crimes dont happen again.” said Nigel Bennett.

The bad weather has brought a real problem with lots of potholes but the speed of response by Suffolk CC is now causing concern.

Some potholes like the one in Cross St near Ballingdon Bridge is a danger to cyclists, drivers vehicles and the vibration from lorries going over it, is causing a real fear of damage to properties.

Suffolk have had this pothole reported several times by residents, in fact, it was left when much smaller by workers, when they repaired 2 others very close by.

Please let me know of any other delays to repairs so i can report them too. Please email me or give us a ring.

Babergh District Council voted 28-10 to introduce long term car park charges of £1.50

The short term car parks used by shoppers remain 3 hours free. The long term carparks will be free for first 3 hours and then £1.50 for 3+ hours. All cars will still need a ticket displayed.

Cllr Martyn Booth moved an ammendment so that the Council will have to investigate a discount scheme for workers who pay upfront for a pass. This will be investigated in the period upto the charges introduction by 1st October and brought back to members as well as our insistence that charges for staff and councillors should be considered and brought back to Council. This is only fair.

Babergh still has a £200,000 gap in its budget to be sorted by february 25th. The Council approved changes that would close the £1.6 million gap to this smaller figure.

Many will be dismayed but now we must make sure that charges do not creep up. The battle has protected many of the benefits businesses, shoppers and residents had.

The Police, Town Council and the licensee have all worked together to produce a plan which they hope will deal with the problems experienced in Station Rd/Francis Rd.

The Police, Safer Neighbourhood Team, state that:

“To date, plans for a structure that would retain smokers in a smaller more manageable area at the side of the Easterns Station Lounge are being designed and submitted to Babergh District Planning Department for their approval. It is hoped that a structure that can be erected before the start of business on a Friday or Saturday night and then be dismantled at the close, will not need planning permission due to it being a temporary area. This has the full backing of the Planning Dept, Sudbury Town Council, the licensee and Police. 

The area will run alongside the nightclub building at a width no wider that the pavement prior to the double yellow lines commencing in Francis Road. With the structure running the length of the club, as opposed to within Francis Road, road users with vehicles will encounter no access issues. It is hoped that any customers wishing to smoke anywhere other that the designated area will not be allowed back into the venue without their admission fee being paid once more. This measure should prevent customers wandering off up the road amongst vehicles, bins and gardens in Francis Road, therefore not committing crime, urinating or causing a disturbance to residents. “

Just learnt that Cross St will be closed for 5 weeks while works are done from the 8th of March. There will be only access for residents apparently. Apparently, Suffolk CC will be removing parking in the Church St/Friars St area so traffic can “flow” around this alternative route. 

The January meeting of the Sudbury and Cornard Safer Neighbourhood Panel agreed to keep the same 3 priorities as last month.

1. Anti social behaviour in Broom St, Cornard. 2. Anti social behaviour in Uplands Crescent area of Sudbury and 3. the educating of retail staff on crime such as shoplifting & alcohol.

Good progress has been made and residents gave feedback on the improvements over the last month in Broom St and the Police and Babergh outlined ongoing action in all 3 areas.

The next meeting where you can report and have a say in setting the Police priorities will be Thurs 25th Feb at 3pm, Sudbury Police Station.

Cllr Martyn Booth and I attended a meeting with on the “Hamilton Rd Quarter” or the bus station area. The consultation is over and the Council officers have analysed the nearly 200 formal responses to the 3 options put forward for economic regeneration of the area on the edge of the town centre and the future of the bus station. The responses to those who wanted none of the 3 options and those who suggested a 4th option were also covered.

This will form a supplementary planning document (SPD) to guide developers on what is acceptable in this area and so avoid proposals that would stop economic regeneration.

The papers will be published on the 4th Feb, a week before the committee on the 11th Feb. I will publish a link then.

We have asked that a timetable and the next steps should be included.

After your Liberal Democrats local councillors organised a residents meeting for people in Cross St, Ballingdon St, and Church St to discuss the Suffolk County Council proposals for traffic management in the area, they have accepted the publics view that the proposal to change the build out should be attempted but that the proposal to restrict car parking further should be halted.

This is a great win for local democracy. They will keep monitoring air quality and this proposal may come back but at a recent meeting with Suffolk and Babergh officers to discuss the problems a whole host of proposals will be considered to tackle further the air quality issues.

None of the local Conservative councillors turned up at this important meeting.

The schemes for evaluation will include down grading the A131 and management of HGVs. The one way system which is popular with some residents and unpopular with others will be re evaluated too.

Our councillors at the meeting kept mentioning the western bypass, the only real solution.

The Councils though are looking for cost effective measures and ease of implementation. I do not think any big projects will have the resources from Suffolk to back them.

We will keep you informed of how this all progresses.

Babergh have issued the following guidance:

“Recycling collections planned for today (Monday 11 January) and tomorrow (Tuesday 12 January) will be postponed to enable the crews to catch up the refuse collections that were abandoned last week.  Recycling collections should commence on Wednesday (13 January) with crews catching up with the Monday and Tuesday collections first. They will also be working on Saturday 16 January to clear any missed bins.”

For queries on bin collections, or to report missed bin collections in Babergh, please call:  0845 606 6045.

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