David Ruffley

AN MP has called for urgent improvements to one of Suffolk's busiest roads, which he claims has become an 'embarrassment' to the county.

David Ruffley, MP for Bury St Edmunds, said drivers using the A14 were having to put up with 'near third world motoring conditions'.

He called for urgent safety measures, particularly after discovering Suffolk has the second lowest level of funding in the east of England from central Government, behind Bedfordshire.

SUFFOLK'S roads are the second worst funded in the East of England when it comes to road safety, new figures have revealed.
For the current financial year Suffolk is getting £7.58million from central government in 'integrated transport block funding'.
However Essex has received £13.3million, Hertfordshire £11.4million and Norfolk £11million.
Out of the six counties that make up the East of England only Bedfordshire, with £3.6million fares worse than Suffolk.

Conservative politicians got on their soapbox to muster support to save accident and emergency services at West Suffolk Hospital on Saturday.

MP David Ruffley and his team took to the streets in Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket to ask shoppers what they wanted for the cash-strapped hospital.

CONTRACTORS on a notorious stretch of the A14 are set to return for repair work - only months after a major improvement scheme was officially opened.
The Rookery Crossroads work near Bury St Edmunds finished in March - six months late and £2million over budget - but specialist assessors were this weekend at the stretch to examine a mysterious slumping in the west-bound stretch of the busy road.
Workmen have discovered subsidence around a drain and the initial study was designed to establish how serious the problem is.

CONSERVATIVES across Suffolk took their message to save the health service on to the streets at the weekend.
Around the county, Tory activists and MPs set up stalls and invited members of the public to join the campaign to save the NHS.
Their campaigning was part of a national weekend of action by the party on the health service which was launched on Friday when senior Conservatives visited hospitals around the country.
The Ipswich campaign was kick-started by a visit to Heath Road by shadow environment minister Peter Ainsworth.

BUSINESS leaders last night criticised the A14 in Suffolk as 'not fit for purpose' in the wake of a horrific crash which brought gridlock to the road for the second time in a week.
Suffolk Chamber of Commerce chiefs called on the Government to give utmost priority to building an extra lane or even making it a full scale motorway in a bid to stop the chaotic scenes witnessed on the route yesterday, the sixth time the road has been closed in the last year.

More than 100,000 drug addicts and alcoholics are being paid incapacity benefit every week, it has been reported.

The Daily Telegraph states the number of people claiming they cannot work and are receiving benefits because of drug abuse and alcoholism has doubled in nine years.

It says claimants are paid £78.50 a week, roughly £20 more than they would get on Jobseekers' Allowance.

Fewer dental surgeries than ever in Suffolk are taking on new NHS patients - despite the introduction of government contracts aimed at improving accessibility.
Of the county's 96 registered dental practices only 12 currently offer National Health Service treatment for new adult patients, according to latest figures.
The picture is only slightly better for the region's youngsters with 15 surgeries providing care for those up to 18 years old.

POLICE insisted last night there was 'no evidence' to suggest booze-fuelled crime had risen since the introduction of extended drinking hours a year ago today.

The comment came after a Suffolk MP expressed concern that the controversial licensing laws were having a 'devastating' effect on the rate of alcohol-related disorder.

The new laws came into force at midnight a year ago and gave premises up and down the country the right to apply to their local authority to sell alcohol for longer - and in some cases around the clock.

A RURAL watchdog last night warned building 500,000 new homes in the East of England will place huge pressure on the environment and 'carve up the countryside'.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has collected more than 1,200 signatures on a petition against the plans.

And a further 800 people have written messages to Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), opposing the move.