Right: too much doom and gloom. So I thought this week I'd give you some good news - and that's not just because the sun's out, as if to remind us of the summer that never was.
Growing Willis
I'm partly in an upbeat mood because I've just come back from a meeting with Mark Parker, the head honcho at Willis in the centre of town. He's Ipswich born and Felixstowe bred, so having been away in India he's now come home. We had a great hour, scheming about what needs to be done to grow employment in the town. And it's not just hot air: Willis will be employing at least a couple hundred more highly-skilled insurance professionals over the next few years.
I hope that this will just be the start. Ipswich is a fantastic place for firms to re-locate from over-priced London. A vote of confidence in the town from one of the world's largest insurance businesses will certainly help me make that case.
Town Centre Improving
Earlier in the week I popped into Memorable Cheeses in Dial Lane and ended up having a good old chat with owners Peter and Sarah Foster. After a ten minutes I summoned up the courage to ask the one question I don't like hearing the answer to at the moment: "how's business?" Well, as it turned out, not so bad. In fact, the Fosters have had a run of good months, even though the summer is usually not so good. Best of all, increasing numbers are from Bury and Colchester - showing that word is getting out that we have some great shops in Ipswich that are unique to our town.
Waitrose for the Good
The conversation inevitably turned to the proposals for a Waitrose and John Lewis At Home on the old Crane's site. I have thought long and hard about this. We all know that the perfect solution would be to have a John Lewis in the town centre, which would help attract in a lot of the money around Ipswich that currently goes to Bury and Norwich. But for too long we have made the perfect the enemy of the good. The Crane's proposal is not the perfect solution, but it is a good one. It will create jobs and get all those people who currently whizz by Ipswich on the Orwell Bridge to drive at least half way into the town.
Lucky LinkThe question then is how to get that trade to drive a couple of miles more into the town centre - because that is how we are going to rejuvenate what we can offer to the people of the town. I have good news here as well: Archant, owners of the Evening Star, will soon be redeveloping the site south of the Cattle Market where this paper is produced, bringing offices and - most importantly - the kind of shops that retail and restaurants chains want but the town does not currently have. We all know about schemes which never see the light of day: but this one, I really believe, may soon see sunlight.
And finally...
I have loads of other good bits of news but will hold them back for future weeks, so we've got something to cheer ourselves up! You should know, however, about the new Suffolk Disability Coalition, which has just been launched to fight for disabled people. I met them the week before last and I have to say, given what they want to achieve, this is another piece of good news for many people in our town.
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