11th February 2009

Member of Parliament for West Suffolk, Richard Spring MP has taken the views of Suffolk residents straight to Westminster; delivering postcards that ask Secretary of State Hazel Blears to LISTEN TO US.

A first batch of 200 postcards, completed by Suffolk residents, was delivered today by Mr Spring to Steve Evison at the Department for Communities and Local Government. The postcards asks Hazel Blears to “help empower our local communities… by telling the Boundary Committee to fully consider the business case for three separate unitary councils in East Suffolk, West Suffolk and the Ipswich area”.

Speaking after the decision to delay the announcement of preferred options for local government in Suffolk by five months, Mr Spring believes that the process thus far has been flawed and advocates abandoning the local government review. However he strongly believes, should Boundary Review continue, that the three-unitary option is the best available arrangement.

He said: "These postcards show the Secretary of State how badly the Boundary Committee has got the Suffolk review wrong so far and I hope that she will instruct the Boundary Committee to look specifically at an Ipswich/East/West arrangement, but only if the no-change solution is rejected."

This website puts forward the views of Forest Heath, St Edmundsbury and Waveney councils but to help you make up your mind you should also take a look at the proposals put forward for a unitary covering all of Suffolk (minus Lowestoft) on www.suffolk.gov.uk and, for a unitary covering Ipswich and Felixstowe, www.unitarynews.com

You can read the Boundary Committee's full proposal on www.boundarycommittee.org.uk