Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve outlined the difficulties faced by the Council this year due to soaring costs, and the savings we’ve put in place to deal with this.
I’ve also written about how for the sixth year running we are levying a lower increase in council tax – both in percentage and cash terms – than Conservative-run Suffolk County Council and Suffolk’s Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner.
On top of this we have been able to reduce the bills of people on low incomes.
Our sound management of the Council’s finances doesn’t just allow us to keep bills down and protect existing services like free brown bins and the young person’s summer I-Card though.
It means that we can continue to invest to improve Ipswich over the coming year.
Ipswich town centre, like so many places, is going through a tough time so investment there will continue to be a priority.
We will complete works to bring St Stephens church back into use as a new music venue and make improvements to Arras Square including better seating, lighting, and accessibility improvements.
We will bring new occupants to the town centre in the properties the Council owns such as the former Little Waitrose and the current Customer Contact Centre in the Town Hall to complement our success in bringing the Botanist to Ipswich.
We will continue to progress the major refurbishment of Ipswich Museum, the largest investment in the museum in its 140-year history.
As the funding from the Towns Fund comes online, we will work with partners to deliver projects in the town centre such as increasing the amount of greenery, establishing free Wi-Fi and digital trails, and a regeneration fund to bring empty shops back into use.
We will work with partners to put on more events in the town centre to encourage people to visit.
And we will address concerns about safety by funding a permanent daytime police presence in the town centre and continuing our programme of CCTV improvements.
Following our award-winning council house scheme at Grimwade Street, we will continue our development of over 300 new council houses at Bibb Way, Ravenswood, Fore Hamlet and Hawke Road, giving hope to people on the housing waiting list. As with our previous schemes these will be quality homes with affordable rents, good insulation, and solar panels wherever possible.
Alongside the Council’s own housing programme, we will continue to work with developers to progress the Ipswich Garden Suburb, building houses for sale to allow more people to get on to the housing ladder.
We will continue our progress on cutting the Council’s carbon emissions by starting construction on our new carbon neutral depot, continuing to update the Council’s fleet with Electric Vehicles, installing more EV charging points in Council-owned car parks and continuing to install solar panels on our properties.
After being awarded “Tree City of the World” status we will continue our programme of planting new trees on Council-owned land.
Following the recent opening of our popular new play area in Gippeswyck Park we will continue our programme of improving play areas across the town with Holywells Park the next in line.
The Council’s purchase and development of the former sugar beet site at Sproughton has brought hundreds of new jobs to Ipswich and we will continue this with the disposal of the remaining plots at Eastern Gateway to new employers.
We will make contacting the Council easier by moving our Customer Service Centre which will enable us to increase the opening hours to five days a week. We will also introduce online reporting and monitoring of repairs for our housing tenants.
Times are tough for everyone at the moment. The Conservatives have crashed the economy and we’re all paying the price.
But with the investments Labour-run Ipswich Borough is making we can build a better Ipswich.