Monday 2nd November at 6.30pm in All Saints Church Hall, Church St there will be apublic meeting organised by your local Lib Dem Town and District Councillors on Suffolk’s latest proposals for the A131 Cross St.

These will involve removal of the build out, widen the east side pavement and install bollards on the pavements on both sides of the road. SCC claim the width will allow 2 cars to pass but not an HGV and car or 2 HGV’s. SCC also propose to remove parking spaces in the street and restrict other spaces for parking.

Residents should get a questionnaire from Suffolk CC but we want to hear your views as residents from the street and the ward. These proposals will affect residents outside the street too.

As your councillors, we want to reflect the opinion of residents in South ward accurately. SCC must get this traffic management right and reduce the air quality problems in this area.

Babergh will be informing Sudbury, Hadleigh and Lavenham Town and Parish Councils the cost of running the car parks so that they can consider managing them on behalf of the District Council and so reducing costs for Babergh instead of the District introducing charges. In the past, Sudbury and Hadleigh have requested the true costs of running the car parks so that they could judge whether they could afford to manage them and maintain free parking for the vitality of the town centres.

Residents have opposed the introduction of car park charges but the District Council is considering all options as it tries to prepare a budget for 2010-11 in the face of a £1.4 million defecit due to the impact of the recession under this Labour government.

Babergh District Council will be debating the budget for next year on Tuesday. The Service and Financial Planning group have asked that nothing be ruled out due to the £1.4 million projected gap on the £12 1/2 million budget.

Full Council will have to decide whether long term car parking charges should be considered as part of the process. Yet there are also many other potential painful impacts including redundancies and service cuts that may have to be considered in the budget formulation.

The economic recession is truely biting local council finances as investment income from low interest rates, loss of planning & building control fees hits as well as reserves reaching a level  where they cannot be used to fund the gap.

A similiar problem may exist next year and that is before any potential reduction in central government grant.

Residents are meeting at 7.30 Monday 12th October about their concerns and fears if the Boat House turns from being a restaurant/pub to a night club.

I will be attending to hear the concerns and will be seeking  clarification from officers at Babergh.