The "New Strategic Distraction" claims its first casualty

Suffolk CC's Endeavour House HQ

Last week I wrote a blog post entitled "Have Suffolk County Council brought back the New Strategic Direction?" which fellow Blogger Andrew Grant-Admason picked up on Suffolk Wordblog. This in turn was picked up yesterday in Guardian Society Daily. Creeting St Peter Lib Dem blogger Mark Valladares also wrote a post on this subject which he entitled Suffolk's New Strategic Disguise: if at first you don't succeed...

I think "New Strategic Disguise" sums it up perfectly! Yesterday it claimed its first casualty with the BBC reporting that Bramford household waste site will close in March. This site was one of several "saved" last year by being transferred to the private sector. Commenting on the closures new site owners Bolton Brothers said visits had dropped by two thirds since they took the site over:

"Without any funding from government, this project is not sustainable based on the low usage." 

Although the firm initially only charged for waste bound for landfill, Bolton Brothers had to introduce charges for wood and garden waste of £6 per car or trailer. Council's figures showed the site had previously had 90,000 visits a year, but it was heading for 30,000 a year now. Their other site in Brome near Eye will remain open at least for now.

As Mark Valladares says:

But you may be able to make a Conservative stop, but you can't necessarily make them think. And the same people who either thought that the New Strategic Direction was a good thing, or were too feckless to question it, have now concluded that, for all intents and purposes, a somewhat pared back version is still fit for purpose.

So, what are they up to now?...

I am beginning to wonder what will be left of Suffolk County Council by the May 2013 elections? The Council appear to be continuing with the policies of privatising and outsourcing as many services as they can. If this look like the new strategic direction, smells like the new strategic direction maybe it is the new strategic direction!