Ipswich Dan  -  Ipswich Vision has tweeted a photo of the Ipswich Waterfront - a half baked modernisation of the Victorian Wet Dock it had no part in - instead of the brand new Cornhill Revamp which was their project from beginning to end! If the Ipswich Vision group made up of various partners including Ipswich Borough Council, Ipswich Central and Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, thinks the new Cornhill isn't exceptional enough rather than yet-another wet dock snap, there is absolutely no hope for the town centre. If the group behind a £3....

Ipswich Dan  -  It appears Ipswich Borough Council is monitoring the new Cornhill like a hawk. I was taking photos of the Cornhill including the orange barriers which have either blown over or been knocked down by somebody (as above), but by the time I walked down Princes Street around the Corn Exchange and back up through Lion Street someone had picked up the three part orange barrier. Nobody within a few metres of the barrier and nobody looking at it. I can only assume someone from the council noticed my photo taking for the latter critique to follow, and rushed over to upright it....

Ipswich Dan  -  The Cornhill Vandalism project has major issues with drainage. in three main cobbled areas, the water fountains, the slot drainage, the groove in the paving and the central elevated area. You expect some problems but this is far too many and this is before you factor in the cost of the damn thing!...

Ipswich Dan  -  Not only is it a location for a grey cabinet for the Cornhill, Lion Street happens to be a storage alley for around 14 bins - general waste and blue recycling - mostly for Ipswich Market. Although these do not obstruct the fire exit to the Corn Exchange, not an ideal situation to have them oin the way of an escape. The above are bins for the Town Hall and Corn Exchange. Notice (if it is possible not to) the overflowing black General Waste bin. Also note, the blue recycling bin which appears to be re-purposed for General Waste that lies close to empty....

Ipswich Buses Watch  -  Ipswich Buses borrows the odd concept from fellow municipal bus operator Reading Buses, but they could do much better to learn how they operate it. First and foremost, Reading Buses have acknowledged Armistice Day with a poppy. What a neat touch. Secondly, Reading Buses are not afraid to show services which are far exceeding the 5 minutes late target, and this happens frequently as-and-when rather than solely for major incidents. Reading Buses twitter accounts shows delays for technical issues, events, on bus incidents, passenger illness, and congestion....

Ipswich Buses Watch  -  It appears Ipswich Buses have rolled out "Pay Contactless" vinyls across their fleet, 6 months after introducing contactless payments. 1) Are they planning of axing cash payments altogether in the new year? 2) Has uptake of contactless been poor, so they have decided to promote it a bit more to encourage more people to use it? 3) Are they considering raising their fares again? Nothing too great....

Ipswich Dan  -  Pret A Manger hasn't even opened in Ipswich, yet we are seeing casualties. The Museum Street Cafe - a well known vegan cafe - in Ipswich's Museum Street is to close. A property website has the cafe which is located at Westgate House, as To Let. Giving a rental of £11,000 pa, the 740sq ft cafe is "Under Offer" - whether that is to say there has already been an offer for a new lease or whether the cafe will continue pending a new tenant. This might just be a quick change of cafe....

Ipswich Buses Watch  -  How does Ipswich Buses' fare vinyls compare to other operators across the UK? A quick search on Flickr reveals all. The above, National Express West Midlands. bus is named. various fare pricing vinyls exist above the wheel - shaped and distinctive colours....

Ipswich Buses Watch  -  Since the departure of Jeremy Cooper as Managing Director and Julie Dyson as Finance Director, these roles have since been outsourced off the payroll. The Finance Director position is being substituted through IPSERV Ltd (currently recruiting for a part-qualified Finance Manager) - an Ipswich Borough Council owned business - and the Managing Director position is being provided as a remote part-time position through Passenger Transport Knowledge Limited. A company Heath Williams owns, possibly acting as a service company (i. e. pay no income tax, N....

Ipswich Buses Watch  -  If you operate a large network of bus services between 6am and just before midnight, should service updates be limited to office hours? Bus service users are looking at Twitter feeds via their mobile phone. so why is it so hard that in the 21st century the bus company cannot find an automated solution to keep people updated or manually have staff logging into Twitter on a smartphone (work phone) to make such announcements for significant problems? Apparently, Ipswich Buses are working on a solution. I wonder what else they are working on....

Ipswich Buses Watch  -  Apparently it appears Jenny "regularly have issue with these journeys". and on being acknowledged after 5 months of complaining about the same services, is asked to make a "formal complaint" through their email service. A step in the right direction yet no management at Ipswich Buses has picked up on this and decided to investigate it themselves. It is a mystery how they have very good bus punctuality figures when consistently late and miss out services. ....

Ipswich Dan  -  The East of England Co-op have made a hybrid planning application () to demolish former Dairy Site to establish two retail units, a gym and some offices. It also include the outline permission for developing distribution centre into 2 warehouses and a D2 leisure unit in the middle. The strange part is the retail units (plus car parks) are only accessible from the industrial estate requiring shoppers to use either Morrisons roundabout or the eastern entrance road into the industrial estate (Boss Hall Road)....

Ipswich Dan  -  The most recent addition to the (17/01189/CON) had been submitted just last month. This included the "A3 planning conditions update report" received 01/10/2018 but dated 10/08/2018. It appears the Planning & Development Committee of Ipswich Borough Council is yet to approve any of the submissions. ....

Ipswich Dan  -  Head back over 15 years ago, the latest "urban renaissance project" in Ipswich that is "fit for 21st century" was Ipswich Village. We will let you read the blurb about the development in their own words, but this area of land south of Handford Road, west of Civic Drive and Princes Street, and North East of the rivers was intended to bring living, employment and leisure into one self-contained area....

Ipswich Dan  -  A planning application () has been submitted to convert an old furniture shop into a Fish & Chip shop takeaway (A5) on Heath Road near to Foxhall Road roundabout. ....

Ipswich Dan  -  Six years ago (when Ben Gummer was still MP) at the Beacon Conference, Sir Stuart Rose (now Lord Rose) said the following about Ipswich:- Will we be saying the same in six years with the new Cornhill in place? Here is an article from the Ipswich Star. Poll: What should we do with the Cornhill, asks former M&S boss Sir Stuart Rose....

Ipswich Dan  -  Considering Debenhams Ipswich store won't be here forever, is it sensible to buy a Debenhams Gift Card this Christmas? Although the Ipswich Debenhams store is rumoured to be one of the affected stores to close over the next 2 to 5 years period (possibly with a relocation to an out of town store as a cost cutting measure), a poor festive trading period is expected to bring such store closure plan forward. Debenhams Plc isn't going anywhere in a hurry - not administration or liquidation - so gift cards will be fine this Christmas....

Ipswich Dan  -  Some are saying the monoliths/arches will be stone but earlier indications reveal this will be cast concrete 4. 7 metres tall. The latest information available appears to suggest a new bespoke design to be undertaken by Amber Precast. The Derbyshire manufacturer specialises in both Precast Concrete and Cast Stone, so we will have to wait and see. Information discs will be affixed (possibly screwed) into the pillars - the information will not be engraved, inset or cast into the plinths/pillars in gold as the previous artist impressions suggested....

Ipswich Dan  -  The Christmas Light switch on event is scheduled for 6. 45pm on the 22nd of November 2018. It will be the first year numbers of people will be restricted on the Cornhill. No figure has yet been released of what the magic number of people will be but if you are lucky enough to get onto the new Cornhill it will be free of charge. (Photo from New Anglia: )....

Ipswich Dan  -  It just goes from worse to worse. On Saturday, the first full day of the Cornhill having been reopened. an elderly woman fell over the steps, requiring an ambulance to be called. Just today, a middle age man also fell over the controversial edge near the Old Post Office. prompting the need for orange barriers....

Ipswich Dan  -  In recent times the Cornhill has seen its fair share of vibrancy from events, however, these ceased when Labour took control of the borough council in 2011 which forced any such events onto Giles Circus or to stop entirely. These included IP-Art events (such as the Jazz Festival), Pentecost, Community Choir, various Flash Mobs and Titan the Robot! The amount of crowds these brought in were huge! So has David Ellesmere allowed the town to be run down hoping the Cornhill will be regenerated to relaunch entertainment on the Cornhill as a new concept?...

Ipswich Dan  -  Suffolk Constabulary's Chief Constable quits following new Suffolk Policing Model being introduced. From April 2019, Suffolk Constabulary's Chief Constable Gareth Wilson will retire, following major changes to Suffolk Police's operations as proposed by Tim Passmore. It isn't known if Gareth intended to retire on reaching 30 years of service, or whether this was a convenient excuse to part from the force after major difficult changes were introduced as they struggle to manage the policing budget. Either way, difficult times for policing ahead. ....

Ipswich Dan  -  Unfortunately, the new Cornhill has claimed it's first victim. An elderly gentleman was spotted lying on the ground near the steps yesterday. Nice to hear members of the public stopping to help him. The new Cornhill design features much fewer steps than the original "levelled town hall access" design but even so with the few steps it is already became a problem. Anticipate this getting worse throughout the winter months....

Ipswich Dan  -  Was reading a tweet with Terry Baxter included in the conversation and was surprised he has his tweets private. Quite a strange approach really. ....

Ipswich Dan  -  An absolute disgrace. The main focal point of the new Ipswich Cornhill has a major issue. The entire area becomes a shallow pond and water tracks over to the surrounding areas. "Well yeah, duh, the water sprays up into the air! " Well, the surrounding area should be wet, but no surface water!...

Ipswich Dan  -  BBC Suffolk has posted a video of Ipswich's new Cornhill including various views and the water fountains in day and at night lit up in colour. The best way to see before actually going to view it for yourself! ....

Ipswich News  -  A new-look town centre square now has a raised platform and fountains. Continue reading. on BBC News website....

Ipswich Dan  -  So £3. 6m+ has been spent on the Ipswich Labour's Cornhill Vandalism project and this includes bespoke (as in unlike anything else in the town, probably whole of Suffolk too) litter bins. This is despite Labour MP for Ipswich Sandy Martin receiving a promotion to Shadow Waste & Recycling Minister. These new grey litter bins appear to replace the mixed black and blue bins - a hybrid litter and recycling bin. So the promotion was only recent but Sandy Martin was MP before the project got the go ahead with the overspend....

Ipswich Buses Watch  -  The new Managing Director of Ipswich Buses has been in the job for around 6 months and contactless payments have been accepted for a similar length of time also. Transitioning from interim MD to a permanent Managing Director, Ipswich Buses doesn't seem to be seeing less complaints as a result of its poor unreliable bus services all across the town. This is something which should have been resolved with a new stable management to the business. In reality, it is more of the same....

Ipswich Dan  -  Seven years ago today, then-MP Ben Gummer was defending the town to which he called "the finest community in the whole of Suffolk". It came after people shot the town down calling it "shabby and rundown", a "cesspit" and "hellhole" during a Radio Suffolk crime themed phone in, following stabbings including in Nacton Road. Politicians were content in continuing the depressing state and poor retail experience of Suffolk's county town. It wasn't until the following year, a snide remark made by an outsider, they decided to do something about it....

Ipswich Dan  -  We should begin with preemptively cancelling the counter argument of "It is a bit too late now! " as the Cornhill regeneration project is almost complete, with "the people didn't decide on it anyway". Serious question. Did Ipswich get the best possible Cornhill design? In a word....

Ipswich Dan  -  The Ipswich Society has been keeping track of the Cornhill Regeneration progress. The Town Hall looks quite nice at the moment. Ignoring the temporary metal fencing barriers etc. they are temporary, whats left of Ipswich Market just isn't doing it for me. Damaging the seating to discourage people using them seems a bit silly (no major deal really) as it is something they should have foreseen with such a design and decided against it....

Ipswich Dan  -  A question for Dave. Why is our town centre dying? We are a county town, the gateway to the Suffolk Coast, a major regional station on the main line from London. and unlike the national picture, our economy has out grown many other areas. We have a booming tourism sector in Suffolk and our town centre is less retail and more leisure....