A NEW TOWN SQUARE FOR IPSWICH
Regardless of any personal views on the choice of design for changes to Ipswich town centre, it’s great to see the Labour administration actually doing something constructive to encourage inward investment. It will be interesting to see if the project can be funded – and project managed within budget; project management and budget are not always ideal bedfellows in the public sector!
The cynics amongst us will, however, remember that Labour were not always so keen to see improvements to our town.
Only a few years ago, they said that reconfiguring Giles Circus (which resulted in the empty shops in the Buttermarket being quickly taken up) was ‘a waste of money’, and Cllrs Ellesmere, Jones and others actually had their photos taken clambering all over the statue in its new location as part of their election campaign, and to reinforce their message.
Yet Ipswich’s contribution was a mere £150,000, far less than the £3.5m which Cllr. Ellesmere and his colleagues have to find for the Town Hall square.
How things change! One could almost call it hypocrisy?