Upper Orwell Crossings – Ipswich Labour Position Statement March 2018

  • There are two major Ipswich infrastructure projects competing for money: Upper Orwell Crossings and Northern By-pass.
  • Labour’s view has always been that a Northern By-pass would bring the greatest economic benefits to Ipswich and the wider Suffolk and national economy.
  • These are mainly: relieving the Orwell Bridge as a single point of failure on the A14; securing the Port of Felixstowe as Britain’s number one container port; ensuring Ipswich does not come to a standstill whenever the bridge is shut; unlocking development of housing and employment land; protecting the rest of rural Suffolk from over-development.
  • There should have been a study undertaken to judge the business cases of the two schemes before deciding to proceed with one over the other.
  • However, given that the County Council and HM Government have decided to proceed with the Upper Orwell Crossings first, we view our role as being to provide constructive scrutiny of the scheme.
  • We are 100% supportive of the two bridges to the island site because of the regeneration potential these will unlock.
  • We are more sceptical about the merits of the larger bridge.
  • We are particularly concerned about the extra traffic this bridge will move from the A14 and on to Ipswich’s already congested roads, and the implications for air quality.
  • Much of our scrutiny will be focussed on ensuring that local residents and businesses do not suffer during the construction of this bridge or subsequently from any increases in traffic that will follow.
  • It is vital that measures are identified and implemented that mitigate the impact of increased traffic on local communities.
  • The large bridge would be a major landscape feature overlooking much of our town. Early presentations promised a landmark design by a world renowned architectural practice. Undoubtedly this served to make the proposal more popular and acceptable.
  • However, we are concerned that Suffolk County Council has not budgeted for such a landmark design. If the large bridge is not to be a quality design this would be a major failure to enhance our vision for Ipswich.
  • If Suffolk County Council do not have enough money to construct a landmark Foster’s bridge it would be better to accept this now rather than undertaking large amounts of expensive abortive preparatory work which could instead be used on a Northern By-pass.
  • We welcome any attempts to move the development of a Northern By-pass forward.
  • We believe that the Northern By-pass road should pass as close to Ipswich as possible in order to increase the benefits available to the town without impacting on the natural beauty of the rest of Suffolk.