Mid Suffolk Must Protect Residents as Well as Nature

I am disappointed to see the Green Party administration at Mid Suffolk District Council using taxpayers’ money to purchase land to be left for wildlife, while failing in its most basic duty: protecting residents.

The council recently announced it had bought land in Stowmarket to create a riverside haven for nature and biodiversity. Protecting green spaces and improving the environment are important goals, and no one would disagree with the need to care for our natural surroundings.

But councils also have a clear responsibility to deal with serious local issues that directly affect the safety and wellbeing of the communities they serve.

The former Fisons site in Bramford is one of those issues. For years it has stood derelict, becoming an eyesore in the heart of the village and a source of growing frustration for local residents. More seriously, it presents a potential danger. We know young people are getting onto the site, creating a real safety risk that cannot simply be ignored.

Residents will rightly ask how money can be found to buy fields to leave untouched for wildlife, while a hazardous abandoned site in a local community is left without action.

Protecting nature matters, but protecting people must come first.

Bramford residents deserve to know that their concerns are being taken seriously. That means securing the site properly, working with all relevant partners, and finally putting in place a plan to bring this land back into safe and productive use.

Right now, residents are being let down.