It’s official: I’m now Leader of Ipswich Borough Council. It’s an honour and a privilege and I hope that I can live up to the expectations of the people of Ipswich.
What did I do in my first week? Firstly, I attended the Annual Council Meeting. This is the formal ceremony to swear in the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Ipswich. They are the ones with the red robes and the big gold chain of office and lead the civil ceremonies in Ipswich. I was pleased to see Councillor Lynne Mortimer sworn in as Mayor, and not just because I am hoping for some help with writing this column! I was especially pleased to see my fellow ward councillor, Elango Elavalakan, sworn in as Deputy Mayor. Elango came to the UK because he was fleeing a civil war in his home country of Sri Lanka. He lost friends and relatives in the war. He was university educated as a civil engineer and has worked as a building site manager and a petrol station manager after arrival. He has been a councillor for nine years now and I am sure many people will have seen him knock on their door. I am especially looking forward to a Sri Lankan food evening to raise money for the Mayor’s charities!
I’ve also had a mountain of stuff to read. I have 27 priorities to get a grip of and have documents and a meeting for each one.
I did get out for an informal meeting of the Ipswich Vision board and I then had an interesting visit to Suffolk New College, where I was shown round their brand new Net Zero facility by Principal Alan Pease and Vice-Principal Mary Gleave.
Net zero means not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This involves reducing these gas emissions as much as possible, and balancing out any that remain by removing an equivalent amount of carbon.
Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide which is released when oil, gas and coal are burned in homes, factories and to power transport. Households will need to replace gas central heating with alternative sources, such as heat pumps.
Ipswich Borough Council has about 7,800 council properties. We will need to move them from gas central heating to heat pumps or other suitable heating. This will take many years, maybe a 20 year programme. Part of this will mean that our 100 strong trades team will need to be upskilled on these new technologies – as well as maintain their existing skills. We discussed how the College could help with training and ongoing skills upgrading, so it was good to hear that they were keen to work with the Council.
The Council will also be phasing out vehicles that run on petrol and diesel, in favour of those powered by electricity. Indeed, the government has announced that a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will come into effect from 2030 with the sale of hybrids being outlawed from 2035. We aim to meet this target.
Ipswich Borough Council are currently converting the former Lebronze Alloys site (behind Sainsbury’s on Hadleigh Road) into a “green” depot for the waste teams. The site will have electric vehicle charging points and a carbon neutral main building.
The site will also house a bulk fuel tank that could accommodate Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), a renewable diesel. HVO is a diesel like fuel that can be produced from waste oils and is low in carbon, which would give the council the option to use the more environmentally friendly fuel for our refuse vehicles.
An onsite vehicle maintenance unit would be included to ensure that the Council’s fleet is maintained in the most efficient way. This will require new skills and also something that the College will be able to help us with.
We ended the tour of Suffolk New College with tea and cake at Chef’s Whites, which is their in-house café & restaurant used for training chefs and hospitality staff. It has great décor that would grace any private dining room – and the cake was a divine treat for a Friday afternoon!