David Ruffley

David Ruffley MP today visited Bury's Stray Cat Fund in Little Whelnetham, near Bury St Edmunds.

Bury's Stray Cat Fund have been looking after cats for 30 years and have had tremendous success in caring for and re-homing cats in the Bury St Edmunds area.

David Ruffley MP will be meeting with the key players involved in the relocation of Bury Town FC on Friday 12 December.

David will be meeting with St Edmundsbury Borough Council's Portfolio Holder for Culture and Sport, Councillor Lynsey Alexander, the Chairman of Bury Town FC, Russell Ward, and St Edmundsbury Borough Council's Corporate Director for Community, Mike Dawson.

Bury Town FC is hoping to move to a site on Moreton Hall in an ambitious £2million scheme funded by the Borough Council and the Football Foundation.

David said:

David Ruffley is launching a survey of Parish Councils in the St Edmundsbury area of his constituency seeking their views on future development in their villages. This is to coincide with the St Edmundsbury Borough Council consultations on their Local Development Framework- which will replace the adopted Local Plan in 2016.

David is keen to know what the villages want in terms of future development and whether they agree with the category into which they have been placed in the consultations- either Service Centre or Infill Village.

David Ruffley MP has today written to the Chief Executive of St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Geoff Rivers, and the Town Clerk of Bury St Edmunds Town Council, John Saunders, asking for their reassurance that the two authorities will continue their funding of Christmas lights in Bury St Edmunds in 2009.

In 2008 Bury St Edmunds Town Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council donated £15,000 and £10,000 respectively to the project.

David Ruffley MP has today written to Chief Inspector Mike Bacon and the Chief Executive of St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Geoff Rivers, over concerns that CCTV coverage of the Cattle Market development will not be fed through to the Bury St Edmunds CCTV control room.

The 'Arc' development will have its own CCTV network and although there will be the ability to upload footage to the main network the two will not be linked.

David said:

David Ruffley MP has today welcomed the news that a Stakeholder Meeting on the feasibility of Park & Ride in Bury St Edmunds will be held on 6 February 2008.

Consultants Mouchel Parkman were commissioned in mid 2007 to produce a report on a scheme for Bury St Edmunds by Suffolk County Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council. Although the consultants were originally expected to produce a draft report by last Christmas, a final draft report had been sent to both councils by the summer of this year.

POLICE are spending ever more time on paperwork and even less time on the beat despite repeated promises by ministers to slash red tape, it emerged yesterday.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will today unveil her latest initiative to reduce bureaucracy for officers with a pledge that it will save 260,000 police hours each year.

But figures show the shambles of red tape wasting an estimated seven million police hours every year is getting worse.

POLICE are spending even less time on the beat and more on paperwork, despite Home Office promises to cut red tape.

Officers now spend less than one eighth of their time patrolling the streets, but a fifth on paperwork. This is despite the Government's promises to free up officers' time.

The Conservatives accused ministers of a "cover up'' after refusing to provide up-to-date figures on officer time spent on patrol or on paperwork.

SOFT sentences were last night blamed for a rise in knife crime and other serious offences.

Two in five sex attackers, robbers and burglars are let off with a caution, figures show.

Let-offs for violent crooks soared by 82 per cent in five years.

Cautions for sex fiends and robbers are up by almost half while those for burglars rose by a quarter.

Shadow Police Reform Minister David Ruffley said: "Soft justice is an insult to victims and undermines confidence in law and order."

David Ruffley has intervened with Suffolk County Council to demand that residents of the Crown Street/Cardinalls Road area of Stowmarket get answers to their concerns about proposed parking restrictions in their area.

A public meeting has been called for Friday 21 November at 7.00pm at the Stowmarket Resource Centre in Crown Street to which Suffolk County Council officers were invited but have declined to attend.