Brought to you by Councillors Sarah Stamp and Patrick Chung
Happy New Year! We are delighted to be supporting this brand new Southgate directory and look forward to updating you all on local issues and what we have been up to as your local councillors each month. We both represent you on St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Patrick is also your town Councillor and Sarah is also your County Councillor. That means that between us we can help you with probably just about anything and so if you have a problem, please do be in touch – our details are below. Until next time, Sarah and Patrick.
HOSPITAL PARKING PROBLEMS
We are still plagued in the area by people parking inconsiderately and sometimes dangerously. We are in constant contact with the hospital and they are regularly reminding staff to park considerately and the Police have been very supportive and monitor and ticket when they can. We have been working for some time with Suffolk County Council Highways Officers to take action where there is a specific safety issue and as a result, local residents are due to be consulted on a number of locations where action is about to be taken and yellow lines implemented. These include Laundry Lane, Barons Road, Mayfield Road, Home Farm Lane/Sandholme Close junction, Lincoln/Salisbury Green and Holywell Close. This would include double yellow lines outside the Macebearer on Home Farm Lane where there are serious safety issues as people are parking opposite a bus stop, meaning visibility is affected. We are assured that (subject to the consultation results) these restrictions will be in place asap and Sarah as County Councillor is chasing hard to make this happen as a priority – watch this space!
SOUTHGATE COMMUNITY CENTRE
When was the last time you went to your Community Centre? Did you know that in 2011 it was passed from the Borough Council to the community and is now run by a committee of people from the local community? We are both honoured to be trustees of the Centre and can report it is going from strength to strength, with hiring’s up and a huge amount of different activities, clubs and classes on offer – there really is something for everyone. We held a really successful family disco in December and tickets are now on sale for the Valentines Ball. There’s also a community pantomime featuring many local faces on February 6th and 7th and don’t forget to put the Southgate Community funday in your diary on May 4th. We have an active Friends of Southgate Community Centre group and if you would like to be involved please email office@southgatecopmmunity.org.uk
PLAYGROUND REVAMP
Great news! We are delighted to announce that St Edmundsbury Borough Council have named the “Nowton Pit” playground as a priority for them to revamp in the next financial year (after April). This follows months of us campaigning for the area to be looked at as the equipment is really dated now. This will include the playground being moved further down the green area (to make sledging easier!) and we have also asked Officers to look at possibilities around lighting and also creating a path through to Smith Walk to improve access to the new play area. On top of the Borough Councils investment, Sarah has offered to support this project with an extra £5000 from her County Council locality budget. We are keen to involve as many people in the community as possible when we plan the design for the new playground and so will be setting up a focus group to help decide what sort of equipment we would like – contact us asap if you would like to be involved.
STEWARD ROAD PARKING
We have been working with residents of Steward Road who are finding accessing their homes difficult as people visiting Hardwick Primary, the Pre-school and the Children’s Centre are parking irresponsibly in the area. There is no easy answer here as any parking restrictions would prevent residents from parking outside their own home, but please, please use the Community Centre car park rather than parking on Steward Road. Sarah is working with Hardwick Primary School Children and is running a competition for them to design some safety signs for the area this month.
NEED HELP WITH FUNDING A PROJECT?
We are pleased to be working with the Southgate Community Centre to install some bike racks at the front of the centre for visitors to the shops and community centre to use. We are funding this through our locality budgets, which is a pot of money that Councillors are given for grants to worthwhile organisations and projects in their division. We are happy to consider any applications for locality budget funding (although there are guidelines we have to meet when making a grant) so if you think your group or community project may be eligible and needs funding then please get in touch! So far this year, Sarah’s County Council locality budget has paid for the refurbishment of the ladies toilets in the community centre as well as the new website and newsletter for the NNRA and new kit for the Young Leaders at Sporting 87 at the Victory Ground.
AND FINALLY…
Have you taken a look at the planting scheme and benches at the top of Caie Walk? This was funded by Havebury Housing and came about after the Residents Association and your local councillors met with Havebury about the poor state of the area. Well done to everyone involved and thanks to Havebury – a great example of what we can achieve if we all work together!
CONTACT US!
Please get in touch if we can help with any issues –
If you have Facebook or Twitter please follow or “Like” Sarah’s pages for regular updates
Cllr Sarah Stamp T 07584 028671 Email: sarah.stamp@stedsbc.gov.uk
Twitter @sstampcomms Facebook www.facebook.com/CllrSarahStamp
Cllr Patrick Chung T 07802 751433 Email: patrick.chung@stedsbc.gov.uk
