The Plot Thickens

This week the Suffolk Coastal District Council (they are now the advertising agency for Bloor Homes (Sudbury) Ltd) produced a picture of part of the latest Bloor Homes plans, saying that there will now 'only' be 158 homes, car parking and a tea kiosk. There will also be a play area and a toilet block, but as they will both cost us money, as Council Taxpayers, they should be ignored as they are not a benefit given to the community. We shall pay for these in the end. In addition, we are gleefully told, Bloor Homes - at their own expense - will restore the Martello Tower (make 'em turn it into a sound studio for our youngsters, it'll only cost £1 million).

All that raises questions:

Not least is whether this scheme will fall under the remit of the new Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and just what community involvement the Council plans for this site-specific plan. So far they have said they will have a display, in the back room of the Leisure Centre at Felixstowe. If we are to judge that by previous consultations held there it will be poorly attended and very badly reported by the Council.

Of the 158 homes only 16 are to be social housing. Yet the government insist that at least 30% should be social housing, especially on land owned by a council. The usual cop-out is for the developer to provide these badly-needed homes in run-down tatty areas, increasing the social division, leaving the prime, sea-front, site for wealthy buyers (often second-homers). What's to happen here?

How are Bloor Homes planning to make up this shortfall?

How much is a sea-front home worth? Shall we suggest that £300,000 is not an unreasonable price to expect to pay.

The cost of building such homes is variable. Most developers will try to build to as low a price as possible.

Of course, the social housing will have to meet Housing Corporation standards, a standard that any self-respecting council should expect to see in houses built upon publicly-owned land.

The HC standards are built as lifetime homes; people may well live in them for all of their lives, and the building must be able to withstand that usage. Disabled tenants will expect wide staircases, lifts, level access, wide turning circles in hallways and other small matters often overlooked by the speculative housebuilder.

Will such details be overlooked by SCDC, keen to encourage this developer - who didn't even have to apply for planning permission this time?

Even so, given that this development seems to consist of flats (or should we say apartments?) then £100,000 a unit is a reasonable construction cost for such a building. After all most insurance companies will say that rebuilding costs of a semi-detached are likely to be around £900 sq. metre, and 110 square metres is not an unreasonable size. The Environment Agency, looking at flood risk, may have a different tale to tell. These costings will be hardened up once the full plans are revealed, if they ever are.

The builder will have 142 homes at an average of £300,000, that's about £43 million. The cost will be around £16 million to build. Add to that, say, £4 million for service provision - they will have to build roads, add sewerage and others services.

Total spend £20 million. Possible income £42 million. Difference £22 million.

The Council - seeking best value on our behalf, as I am sure they will - should be looking for 75% of that sum, for the land. Let's be generous, after all poor old Bloor Homes have been given a rough time, and so we should expect only £12 million nett.

Add to that the expected income of 280 cars park spaces. How much is that? Assume 50% occupancy for 300 days a year, 12 hours a day at 20 pence an hour, that's about £100,000 a year. Overhead costs, with council managed staff, likely to be £50,000, leaving £50,000 a year profit. Let's leave aside the tea kiosk, and try to ignore the added cost to the Council of the toilets.

The Herman de Stern, a magnificent building, whose twin is a Listed Building, sits on the edge of this land, on just 167x230 feet. Plans have drawn up to build a theatre, a cafeteria/bar, shop and at least four flats. The cost was £1.6 million, let's treble that, and add a little, and suggest £5 million. The Council should still have at least that sum left over, and also have the guarantee of increased revenue for many years to come from the homes, the theatre and other amenities that could be created.

Instead the Council plan to knock down this wonderful building and allow a developer who has no association with this town run away with a huge profit. Why do the Council want to destroy this resource? Is there something they are not telling us? Does it have anything to do with covenants attached to that land, or to the tenants right to buy? We should be told.

Is this 'best-value'? You tell me, for I suspect that the Council, despite their new avowed intentions for more public discussion, will not do so.

We don't need amenity provision provided by a developer. We want their cash! How much are Bloor Homes paying for this peach?

Chicken Soup

Do you remember the chicken stock we made a while ago? I hope you stored it away in the freezer, or it will have acquired a particularly unpleasant odour by now.

Stock can be added to anything that needs a sauce. I kept all the pieces of chicken in the stock made earlier, but they could have been removed by passing through a sieve (throw the meat into a curry), or if you want to remove everything pass the liquid through a piece of muslin, or a jelly bag. A coffee filter also works very well. They all take time, and, in my mind, remove the best bits, but I'm a strange person.

The simplest step forward is to throw in a good handful of pasta to make a nourishing soup; choose the small stuff - and shape you like, they are all made from the same ingredients, it's just that the Italians like to bring artistry to the table. That's not all, some pastas can carry more sauce than others (I'm sorry this is a digression, you are still thinking soup, and I've moved to pasta sauces). With spaghetti the sauce tends to run off, although it does have a large surface area.

There's a good game to play with children, make a sauce, cook a variety of pasta, and see how much sauce they will each absorb. Mathematics is cookery, or should that be the other way round?

I was picking blackberries and elderberries in a local park yesterday. A grandma, her daughter and the young grand-daughter all stood, watching. Eventually mum asked me, 'What's that you are picking?' I told her. 'Oh we didn't know whether they were poisonous or not, or what they were.' What a state this country finds itself in. Mum was grossly overweight, grandma in a wheelchair, again because of her weight, and the young girl looking as if she was going the same way. I started to talk about blackberry and apple pie, or using the elderberries to make a coulis, or even ice-cream, but could tell from the glazed eyes that food came from a supermarket, in a brightly coloured cardboard box.

Can we start a campaign to ban prepared food?

I thought not.

Don't forget the Herman - more about this lovely building tomorrow.

England

We won a cricket match! There is, after all, something to be proud about. The national sport of an English summer has triumphed once again. There was a time when that would have been taken for granted, but now much has changed.

I turned on the TV to see Sven, our English football manager (that's Sweden for you) watching Chelsea play Tottenham Hotspur at football. That's one of our national games in the winter, although you'll all know that rugby is so much better. Why he was watching the game was difficult to understand, there were hardly any English, or even British, players on the field. The rest of the world does it better than us - so we spend our money on foreign players, and they take our money back to their countries.

This weekend seees the Notting Hill Carnival, hailed by the organisers as a triumph for multiculturalism, and they are right. It is great to see people from some many different backgrounds enjoying themselves.

The ethnic variety will not contain anything English; the clog dancers, Morris Men, English folk bands and the rest will be missing. Perhaps they shouldn't be there, for the English have had the guilt of their forefathers thrust down their throats, even though their ancestors had no real control over their own destinies. These strange people are part of our tradition, one that stretches further back than the celebration of carnival. Importantly they are part of our land, our culture, and have been part of our very being and substance for centuries.

There are wider issues at stake. It's not just a bunch of silly men with bells around their ankles waving white handkerchiefs. It is about being English.

The English are the most oppressed people in the world. For centuries we have been subjugated by our lords and masters. Ordered to work the land, go to war, give up our lives at the whim of the controlling elite. We even failed to organise a revolution that lasted.

How many children are now taught of the Enclosure Acts, when huge tracts of common land where appropriated, taken away from the people, without any compensation? That simple question raises huge issues about anyone's right to own land. How can you own something that you cannot move? For centuries the peasants had rights; to graze their livestock, feed pigs on beech mast, to cultivate for their home use, and to walk across the land. The Enclosure Acts removed those rights.

England's green and pleasant land?

Come back, I know you're there - somewhere.

A friend who lives in Savannah. Georgia tells me that the temperature has dropped by at least 10 degrees (they use Fahrenheit there, remember). She refuses to believe it has anything to do with the USA producing 25% of the world's pollution, she may be right. Will she be able to explain the plague of caterpillars that have recently appeared all over that state?

Correlations are often difficult to absolutely identify. The weather and pollution relationship is similar to the demise of the common sparrow that came about at the same time as the country moved to lead-free petrol. A variation on 'who killed cock-robin'.
Austria remains wet, but the rest of the week residents could see the sun. They need it, they need cheering up, hemmed in by all those hills. A look at the sky in Suffolk would relax them all. Perhaps we should arrange a permanent exchange scheme?

The Net allows us to communicate, wherever we may be. There's a fascination in emailing folk who live elsewhere, but mistakes are easily made. The Americans find my English humour difficult, often taking offence when I meant to make no more than a silly, throwaway, remark.

However, it is possible to build relationships that are really important, even though you will never meet the other person.

There are dangers. One friend started emailing an old friend, living in Australia. They'd been friends two decades ago when they both worked in London, and the email relationship blossomed. So much so that he proposed, and came to England to marry his love.
Two years have passed and she phoned me recently (see, the old ways are often the best) complaining that they no longer spoke to each other. 'All he can talk about is cricket,' she moaned.

Not sure that the demise of their marriage can be blamed on Australians, the Internet or just that her fantasy has not be properly realised. Whatever way, it's sad that two people have not found happiness. Is that inevitable? Do all relationship decay? Are those that remain just living behind a facade?

Don't ask me for any answers, I've been married too many times to act as a counsellor.

Many of our children are suffering today, needlessly. The GCSE examination results are published, and little swots will celebrate, while lazy miscreants are forced to shrug and mutter, 'don't matter, I'm a footballer, a pop star, or whatever'.
What do these exams achieve? What does our present education system achieve, apart from a large number of bright intelligent kids? It only measures failure. It's not the kids who have passed their exams that are of any concern, it's those who have failed.
About a fifth of our children leave school unable to read, write or understand rudimentary arithmetic. That is a disgrace.
It's not just that remedial, throwaway, bunch of thickies who lack basic skills. At the respectable university where I was once a research fellow in education the English lecturer, that's the person who teaches budding teachers how to teach English, could not send an email that did not contain spelling or grammatical errors.
We can't blame the individuals, too often they are the product of the 'progressive' era when the child's creativity was more important than any basic understanding.
Our children are not taught to think. A child has imagination, and the ability to laugh. Adults can all learn a lot from children - although most will find it hard to keep up.
Kids should be able to make mistakes without fear, because experimentation is what will drive this country forward. The present structure with the universities wagging the tail of education produces failure, and that results in disenchanted children, and a disruptive society. I'm amazed and delighted at how most of our children manage to survive the torment of school. They are forced to learn about totally irrelevant subjects, remember too much, and to pass exams that only the education system itself is really concerned about.
Most successful people had a dire time at school. They were rebels, didn't learn, didn't concentrate, yet they went on to become our finest sportswomen and men, our entrepreneurs, even our politicians (although I can see weaknesses in my argument there!).
Let's revamp the whole system. Ensure that all children, and I do mean all, can read, write and do 'rithmetic to an acceptable standard. Keep them at school until they can. Give incentives. If a 14 yr old has passed the basic tests, then let them leave school, go outside into the wider world, get a job, become pop stars, or whatever.
BUT, allow them all to return to education for a further five years at any time in their lives.
School comes at the wrong time for many people. They may see the sense as they get older. I was ancient before packing up work to go to the London School of Economics. Some will want vocational courses, other to study Sumerian, it matters not. We must all be taught to think for ourselves.
Good luck kids, and if you failed today - well done.

Yellow Obsession
The motor vehicle is both a love and a curse. We all enjoy the freedom is provides, some love speed, others believe that the car reflects the driver, all of us hate trying to find somewhere to park.
Why don't we scrap all those yellow lines? There are far too many, often in silly situations where it would not matter one jot if a car was parked.
Visit many European countries, let alone the rest of the world, and people tend to take precedence over vehicles. The streets are for people, but our town planners do not heed our own government's guidelines which urge that our towns be given back to people. For too long the car has been master. It must stop.
One good start would be to ban all yellow lines, let folk park wherever they like, and impose heavy fines upon those who parked in dangerous places. Pedestrian crossings, road junctions and near schools are obvious no-go areas. Hit those miscreants hard. For the rest, make it a free-for-all, accept that people can work out solutions for themselves and they do not need the Grey Wraith or a traffic warden to punish them.
Life is for living. Towns are for people. Shops are to be used. Car parks should be free.

Outside the Box
It's good to stretch the mind a little, and this morning there seems to be a plague of white vans. We should have sympathy for these fine fellows, many of whom have a formidable list of deliveries to make each day. But, and there has to be a But, isn't there a better way?
We are ideally placed in Felixstowe to conduct an experiment. If we built a warehouse/handling centre just off the A14 as it entered Felixstowe we could then make every delivery van entering the town drop off their loads there. With the growth of Internet shopping, mail order deliveries will increase, leading to ever more white vans.
The Royal Mail has such a system, where all goods (parcels and letters in their case) intended for a town are delivered to a distribution centre, then one van or postie on foot or a bike makes regular deliveries to each road, and house, in the town every day. The result is an immediate reduction in traffic flow, and a consequent improvement in the air we all breathe - for diesel engines are the real polluters. Our local street van would drive down our road just once a day, just like the milkman used to do, just as the postman does today.
The van drivers would be saved the hassle of searching for unknown addresses, their employers would have greatly reduced transport costs, we'd not be plagued by vans, and there would be less pollution.
Have I got it wrong, or does this seem an ideal solution?
Very soon the Royal Mail will lose its monopoly. A totally stupid decision that will inevitably lead to the demise of the postal service upon which we all rely. Perhaps Royal Mail should pick up this suggestion, and our local traffic planners should endorse and support the policy by banning all commercial vehicles from Felixstowe, unless licensed. Oh yes dear Council, there's a revenue opportunity there for you as well.
That local delivery van could be an electrically-powered vehicle, making it quiet and pollution free.
I'd certainly give its driver a big Christmas Box.

It was a good weekend, the bad weather office were proved wrong. The promenade was full of people, and it's good to see that the area where once a tired old train went round and round a bare grass field is now buzzing with excitement. There's a wild west train, a canoe ride and now, this week for the first time, the rodeo ride. Let's hope the weather stays good for long enough for the entrepreneurial owner to recover his investment.
Such rides are attractive but I prefer to see more amusements that test the children, rather than just give them a passive ride. In that respect I'm keener to see the motorcycle ride - at least they do have to steer, although the track and its environs are looking rather weary. These rides and games bring people to the town even though I'm filled with dismay when my grandchildren want to spend money (often mine) on the fruit machines. My brain will just not allow me to accept that today's machines are better than the penny pinball games that were once found along the front. I suppose that has everything to do with age. As a child I believed I could beat the machines, and come home with more pennies than I took to the arcade. That wasn't true then, and it is certainly not true today. A penny has turned into 20p or more, and I find it painful to see that sort of money disappear, so quickly.
It's a sign I'm really getting old!

Is eating chicken responsible for the low sperm count in young men? A pertinent question, and someone may know the answer. We need a competent bioscientist. With a third of all chickens sold allegedly contaminated with one dire bug or another it may be time to look at what we eat.
Our chicken from Michael's Butchers in High Road East has already provided one good, and simple to prepare, meal - see that recipe in the archive.
Now strip all the remaining skin and flesh from the bones. Put the attractively edible parts into a dish: the breast, legs, and don't forget to turn the bird over - towards the back end you'll find two pieces of flesh lodged in indentations on the carcase bones. They'll slip out easily, giving you two oysters, probably the sweetest meat on the whole bird. Put this dish of meat in the fridge, or pop the oysters into your mouth, as chef's treat.
The bones, skin and all other pieces of the bird should be placed in a saucepan, and barely covered with water. Add a chopped onion, a carrot, chopped celery and any herbs you find attractive. On the stove let this simmer for a while, perhaps an hour, on a low heat.
Turn off the heat, don't remove the lid, and allow to cool to room temperature. When cool, stand beside the kitchen bin, with a clean saucepan beside the stockpot. If the chicken is really good,and you haven't swamped it with water, you may find that all has turned to jelly. Lucky you!
Pick out the skin and bones, each in turn and strip of any jelly or scraps of meat into the clean pan. Throw the bones in the bin. Chicken bones are not suitable food for dogs, as the silly pooch will crunch it up and try to gulp it all down far too quickly. Splitered chicken bones act like fish hooks, and will stick in the animals throat. So throw the bones away.
You should be left with a rich chicken stock, with plenty of scraps of meat floating in it. Purists may strain this mixture if they wish. I think that's mad and can see no real attribute in consomme (clear soup). I want all the goodness I can get.
Either leave the stock as it is, or bash it in a blender. I use a handheld whizzer, which is easy to clean - it works in the saucepan, and is effective.
Use as stock - and we'll come up with a few ideas for that in other recipes later, or use as a soup.
Soup is much under-rated. We'd all be much better off if we ate more.
And more of that will come next.

From Elaine Borish's book, What Shall I Do With All Those Courgettes, published by Fidelio Press, but now appears to be out of print I provide:

Neapolitan Zucchini and Aubergine with Pasta

8 oz (225 g) pasta shells
2 medium onions, sliced
3 large cloves garlic, sliced
3 red peppers, cut into strips
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus a
little more for the topping
2 aubergines (eggplants), diced
2 bay leaves
salt
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon thyme
6 small zucchini, sliced
12 tomatoes, chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
6 oz (175 g) cheese, grated
14 oz (400 g) whole-wheat
breadcrumbs


1. Cook the pasta shells (or any other small shape such as bows).
2. Sauté onion, garlic and peppers in oil.
3. Add aubergines, bay leaves, salt and herbs.
4. Add zucchini, tomatoes and tomato paste and gently stir it all together.
5. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, until sauce thickens.
6. Mix in the cooked pasta shells, and put it all into an ovenproof casserole.
7. Make a gratin topping by combining cheese and breadcrumbs, moistened with a little oil, and spread the mixture over the top. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 50 minutes.

Serves 6

and

Fish in Foil

Prepare this one ahead of time for company; when ready, just take foil packets from refrigerator and cook. Couscous would go nicely with this dish. Or rice.

1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
6-8 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 6-oz (175 g) firm fish fillets
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
2 fl oz (¼ cup or 60 ml) dry white wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon shredded fresh basil (or 1 teaspoon dried)
6 black pitted olives


1. Take 2 sheets of aluminum foil 12 x 24 inches (30 x 60 cm) and fold each sheet in half to form a double thickness.
2. On the center part of each foil square brush a little oil, then arrange on it half of the ingredients: zucchini, mushrooms, fish, onion slices.
3. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, wine, seasonings, and basil and dribble the mixture over each arrangement. Place halved olives on top.
4. Fold the foil into airtight packets.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 425°F (220°C) for 20-25 minutes.
6. With a spatula, carefully lift the fish and vegetables out of the foil onto individual, warmed serving plates and pour any leftover liquid over each serving.
Serves 2

Supermarkets are irresponsible in their attitude towards food. The 'Pile it High, Sell it Cheap' philosophy was the worst publicity campaign ever, and we are all the losers. Only the supermarkets gain from such a ridiculous approach.

People buy expensive clothes, cars, take holidays in exotic places, lavish good money on TV sets and equipment, yet are content to pour rubbish down their throats. It's madness.

Today research announces that at least one third of chickens sold as food are infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. How long before we become resistant as a result? I have an inane theory that the sperm count of our young males has drastically reduced because they drink water that contains oestrogen, mostly coming from the contraceptive pill, but also from much of the food we eat.

Buy decent food. There's a temptation to buy everything from a supermarket but you do yourself no favours. I'd like you to try a few experiments, mainly by visiting local sources of supply and cooking the food yourself rather than buying a cardboard box whose contents you throw in a microwave while you sink into the sofa to watch your favourite soap. It may seem as if it costs more, but that is unlikely, and you will feel so much better.

Start with a buying spree. Go to Jacks, the greengocers in Hamilton Road, or to the Sunday market, and buy all the fruit and vegetables you can carry. It's unlikely you'll spend much more than a tenner, perhaps £20 if you are really extravagant. Buy anything that looks attractive, but include onions, garlic and Jack sells farm-fresh eggs as well.

Then cycle down to Michael, the butcher, in High Road East. I say cycle because Felixstowe is not that big a place, and even though it has a few hills a bike remains the cheapest and fittest way of getting around. Our two local cycle shops will set you up, and ask for panniers and baskets as well, for you'll be surprised how much you can carry on a bike.

Michael is one of three butchers in the town. I recommend him because I know him, the others may be just as good. Today we want a chicken, a good-sized bird will cost about £5, perhaps a little more or less.

Take it back home, place in a baking tray, sprinkle a little salt over the skin, stuff a lemon up its rear end - and you may want to cut out the two lumps of fat that you should find just at the edges of the cut rear end, either side of the parson's nose.

Cut up an onion, it really doesn't matter how you do that, but I slice away the root end, cut a thin slice from top to bottom, along the rounded side, so that it will sit on that cut edge, making it easier to slice. Then I practice being a TV chef by slicing as quickly as I can. The trick is to hold the onion firmly with one hand, using that hand as a guide for the knife - which should be big and heavy. Slice down, rocking the knife across the cut, remembering to move your guide hand back away from the knife as you slice, or you'll get too much blood on the onion. Then roughly cut up the slices to make hundreds of small pieces.

Sprinkle the cut onion around the chicken. There's no need to tie its legs down, but do make sure that you look inside, however distatesful you find that, to check for plastic bags with gizzards etc. Remove these, and all other wrappings and strings before cooking.

Drizzle a little oil over the bird and the onions. Any good quality vegetable oil will do. Put the bird into a warm oven, about gas mark 6 - no idea what that is in new money, but probably about 180C. I'd recommend you add a handful of garlic cloves, no need to peel them, because roasted garlic is divine.

Wash some potatoes. I never peel spuds at this time of year, the real goodness is just under the skin, so why throw it away? I'll often steam some other vegetables on top of the potatoes.

The chicken will take around an hour to cook. Take it out of the oven to check, when it looks brown. Stick a knife down into the space between the leg and breast and watch carefully as the juices escape. They should run clear, keep cooking if there is any trace of blood.

A few minutes before you think the chicken is approaching perfection start cooking the potatoes. Plenty of boiling water, perhaps a little salt - although I rarely use salt in cooking, unlike so many TV chefs who seem to ladle the stuff all over each portion of food. Reduce the salt intake, it will allow the true taste of the food to emerge.

I use a simple steamer, it's just a saucepan to which I can add two more layers that have holes in the bottom to allow steam to pass through. Cook the potatoes in the water in the saucepan, add other vegetables to the steamer trays. Carrots take longer than cabbage, and spinach takes seconds. Get involved with the joy of cooking, prod, poke, look and taste as you go along. That's the way you learn when food is ready.

Once the chicken is cooked, take it out of the oven, remove from the baking pan, and let it stand on a warmed plate or carving board, in a warm place. This will relax the meat, which has contracted during cooking.

Put plates into the oven to warm. It is essential that all hot food be served on hot plates.

Add some of the vegetable water to the juices in the baking pan, which is now on the top of the stove, sitting on a low heat, while you stir enthusiastically while sipping a glass of chilled white wine or a gin and tonic. I prefer not to add flour to this sauce, but just to rely upon the juices from the chicken, the lemon, the onions and garlic and adding a little water from the cooking vegetable to make up the quantity needed.

Once the sauce is made, cut up the chicken. If you really don't know how to do that go to the library and look in any good cookbook. Place on a seving dish, pour over the sauce, add the vegetables, or put in a separate dish and serve.

Don't throw any part of that chicken away. The best bits are yet to come.

Felixstowe Carnival

It will be a great weekend in Felixstowe. Our Carnival committee has done it again, working tirelessly to put together a programme of events. The carnival procession is on Saturday, threading its way around the town and along the seafront.

Then we go to Langer Park for all the fun of the fair, with a variety of stalls, and music. There are any number of musicians playing over the weekend, including the ex-drummer of Status Quo. And don't forget the fireworks on Sunday evening!

Let's thank the carnival organisers now, because they show what can be done by enthusiastic volunteers if they are given just a little support.

The weather forecast is optimistic and we shall have an enjoyable weekend.

Herman de Stern

In June 1997 a survey of the Herman de Stern was completed by A N Towell and Associates, chartered building surveyors, of Ipswich.

It is an excellent report, which finds that the building is in generally good condition, although in need of maintenance and repair.

The report says that half the asbestos had already been removed, and that removal of the rest was not considered to be a problem. Mr MacFarlane, SCDC Head of Finance in a letter of 26 July 2005 says, 'I would expect the cost of removing the remaining asbestos to be broadly the same whether the building is demolished or not.' The building surveyors were of the same view in 1997.

SCDC say that they have been unable to find a viable partner but the 1997 report shows plans for new 187 seat theatre, a bar/restaurant, meeting rooms and several private flats. Stage Door theatre group used the building in those days, and wanted to use the new theatre. We understand that at least two developers have contacted the council since then, asking if they can get involved, but have heard nothing from SCDC.

The building was bought by SCDC in 1979 for £50,000. Since then they have let this fine place fall into decay.

About 600 beach huts were removed from the area, and tenants of Herman forced to leave, even though three had been given a right to buy, as council tenants.

Over the years there has been a steady loss of income, from rents alone, let alone from the increased opportunity offered to local businesses by the presence of all those beach huts. The thriving shops in Beach Road have largely gone, and who knows what else would have been encouraged into the area?

The rental and rates income would, by now, have paid for the complete restoration of Herman de Stern, and in turn that would have brought much-needed vitality to this run-down part of town.

To use the land for private housing is dangerous and wrong. It will bring immediate financial gain to SCDC, but who will then pay for the new schools, hospital services, increased congestion, over-loaded sewerage systems, and loss of amenity presently enjoyed by local residents? And what guarantee will SCDC give that the money will be spent in Felixstowe?

The last Bloor Homes plan talked of increased amenity use. In practice this meant new roads and services to meet the needs of the new housing. Leisure facilities were to be a seaside cycle path and walk (two days work with a JCB) and a wooden boat for children, graffiti artists and drug-dealers, and an open amphitheatre, presumably for skateboarders? For such amenities Bloor Homes will get 17 acres of land, destroy the views of folk living in Manor Terrace, and deprive the town and its tourists of the ability to expand.

And tourist expansion will be required. We could build a marina at Felixstowe, put multi-storey car parks under the cliffs at Convalescent Hill and elsewhere, sell the Town Hall, make the Spa Pavilion a centre of excellence, make the town an interesting place in which to live, and to visit.

And don't forget the Olympics. I lived 60 miles from Barcelona just before the Olympics there, and it revitalised the whole area. We can all gain, if we plan now.

Houses for rich people who want to live by the sea? Who needs them?

The Herman de Stern sits on a plot of land 167x230 feet. Bloor Homes are about to be given 17 acres, and yet they insist they must demolish the Herman de Stern, which cannot make much difference to their profits. Can it?

There's something very strange going on. We want the Council to be more open. They have decided not to allow public discussion of the new Bloor Homes proposal. Why not? It is our lives, the people who live in Felixstowe, that will be affected. Our Felixstowe councillors are muzzled by so-called conflict of interest clauses. If that's the case they should all resign from SCDC and concentrate upon Felixstowe Town Council. Perhaps the town would do better by breaking away from SCDC alltogether?

Email received this morning, from a lady who was clearly not impressed with the Abba tribute band at the Spa Pavilion last week.

"Sorry not at all impressed with your Abba tribute act. Not just that there were only the two, but this act would be more suitable in a pub. A bad tribute show."

Did anyone else feel the same? Post your views at Felixstowe TV forum.