Joanne Earley

Letters

Labour plots

From Socialist Review, No. 174, April 1994.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

Ipswich Borough Council seems not to like the unemployed or disadvantaged. This explains why it is spending less (£0.74 per head) than other comparable East Anglian towns (Norwich £2.32 and Cambridge £2.98 per head) in creating new jobs this year.

Now it plans to build up to 200 houses on the site of the Bramford Lane Allotments. The biggest single identifiable group of the 190 or so people who will lose their plots in favour of private houses is that which needs an allotment the most: those on a low income, the unemployed and pensioners.

The signs are the council is beginning to regret the move. The allotment holders’ committee is proving to be an unexpectedly vigorous opponent and both local MPs are publicly on its side. A pity the same can’t be said about the Labour councillors most closely concerned.

The ruling Labour group has had one electorally damaging dispute by deciding to build on the airport. Now a bright planner has landed the group with another.

The council is already showing signs of weakening due to widespread opposition. Let’s hope, in the spring, the pensioners and unemployed can dig the plan in as part of their compost.

Joanne Earley
Ipswich

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