Ipswich people love visiting Felixstowe! Last Sunday we visited because my son was marching with the Orwell district Scout groups on their St George’s Day Parade.
It was cracking weather, which made a pleasant change from the freezing day last year and being soaked through the year before!
The Scouts walk along the promenade to the Spa Pavilion. With the scouts inside, we had hoped to have a decent walk along the Promenade. However, we kept meeting people we knew from Ipswich! We met the couple who live across the road, soaking up the sun.
Then a former Labour councillor at a beach hut with her wider family, followed by an old sports friend of mine who has a beach chalet. Finally, a former Tory councillor who was complimentary about what I was doing.
Ipswich and Felixstowe are closer than you think. Indeed, there is a bridge between them, the Orwell Bridge.
This bridge only has a twenty year lifespan left, though the immediate issue is that seven weeks of repair work in June and July will require lane closures of both sides of the road.
Ipswich MP, Jack Abbott, has urged National Highways to make the full details of their works to the Orwell Bridge public, effective immediately, so residents and businesses can plan ahead.
He has called for all responsible stakeholders to do everything in their power to shield local residents and businesses from consequences of the works, otherwise Ipswich and Felixstowe will face a summer of chaos.
The repairs to an ageing Orwell Bridge are necessary and unavoidable, and the proposals represent the least worst option available. They will cause huge disruption for residents and businesses, which will frustrate and worry people, all the way to Felixstowe.
Ipswich, Felixstowe and Suffolk as a whole, has continued to suffer as a result of Tory run Suffolk County Council’s short-term political decision continue to block the delivery of the only credible alternative on the table: an Ipswich Northern bypass.
The Port of Felixstowe is very important to the local economy. Lots of Ipswich people work at the port or in logistics roles.
Construction is set to begin this month on £1bn expansion of the London Gateway, which aims to become the UK’s largest container port.
Taking that crown from Felixstowe, which would be a disaster for the local economy.
At the other end of the shipping spectrum, I was pleased to be at the affiliation of HMS Trumpeter to Ipswich.
HMS Trumpeter is currently part of the Coastal Forces Squadron (East), based in Newcastle, and is tasked with providing maritime security within Europe’s coastal waters.
It is good to see that Trumpeter is an active ship. In early 2024, Trumpeter and three of her sister ships were deployed to northern Norway as part of a NATO exercise.
Ipswich Borough Council’s main office is named Grafton House, after a previously affiliated ship, HMS Grafton, which last visited in 2006. I’m sure many people will still remember visiting her when she berthed at Cliff Quay.
Ipswich was then affiliated to HMS Quorn, a minehunter.
She was able to access the wet dock and was welcomed by various naval associations on the quayside. I still remember the ship’s company marching through the town in 2014 to accept the Freedom of the Borough from Mayor Bill Quinton.
I look forward to HMS Trumpeter adding to the naval tradition of Ipswich.
I also look forward to the day that Felixstowe and Ipswich will benefit from a northern bypass, though this will require the County Council to change tack.
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