A very merry Christmas to our readers!

This blog celebrates its first Christmas this year, and so it gives me great pleasure to wish our readers a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Good luck to you all, and I hope that the festive season brings you everything you could reasonably ask for...

We'll see you in the New Year, with more news and tales from the heart of mid-Suffolk (population 260... ish).

Will 'adequate' be the epitaph for Mid Suffolk District Council?

I have not always been entirely complimentary about Mid Suffolk District Council. However, until now, I haven't had anything to compare it with. Now, that has changed, courtesy of OnePlace, a new website which provides independent information on local issues in England, and brings together the views of six independent inspectorates.

So, how does Mid Suffolk rate? Not that well, I'm afraid. Graded 2 out of 4 for managing performance and use of resources, it achieves an overall rating of 'adequate', putting it on a par with Waveney (Lowestoft and surrounds) and Babergh (South Suffolk). Unfortunately, Forest Heath (West Suffolk), St Edmundsbury, Ipswich and Suffolk Coastal are all rated as performing well, scoring 3 out of 4 on both key measures, as does Suffolk County Council.

All well and good, I hear you say, but why does this matter? It matters because we are less well-served than most other residents of the county. We deserve something better than merely meeting the minimum requirements.

All this said, the news that proposals for a unitary authority covering the entire county are likely to be passed in time for a May general election means that the days of Mid Suffolk District Council are probably limited in any event. Here's hoping that local government reform means better services for Creeting St Peter...

Snow and trains - probably not a good combination...

Snow. Pretty, covers the fields with a blanket of white. Not so good for trains though, and with the forecast for heavy overnight snow, National Express East Anglia have declared an emergency timetable for tomorrow (Friday). For more news, click here...

If you're planning to travel, good luck!

There's cheese in them thar hills!

Bored with mass-produced cheese? Fancy something a little different? Well then, you'll be interested in the latest enterprise to make a splash in neighbouring Creeting St Mary, Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses.

A family-run business, with award-winning pedigree Guernsey cows, their output is based on two main products, Suffolk Gold and Suffolk Blue, although they also sell milk, cream and home reared beef and pork. Best of all, they'll sell you their produce from their farm shop, although hours are a bit limited.

Goodbye National Express, hello... well who, exactly?

Thursday's announcement that the current franchise for the East Anglian region, held by National Express, will come to an end three years early, in 2011 instead of 2014, will probably come as no surprise to those who use their services frequently.

Increasingly worn out rolling stock, frequent use of bus replacement services, the reductions in the numbers of cleaners and customer service staff, the loss of the award-winning restaurant car, all of these have been have indicated a company that is short of money, short of ambition, and unlikely to provide the level of service that our increasingly prosperous region needs. Anyone who uses the Ipswich to Cambridge line, with its elderly carriage(s) and ever-present one-carriage services will share my view that we could have so much more.

We'll see what comes of any change, although it is hard to believe that National Express will regain the right to run our trains...

A bridge too far? Another delay for the new bridge in Stowmarket

Rumour has it that the new bridge over the railway at the southern end of Stowmarket station has been, once again, further delayed. My sources are now suggesting that the project will not be completed until June.

What does this mean? For one thing, taxi metering will potentially cause significant costs for those travelling to Stowupland, Creeting St Peter and points beyond, as the risk of being caught at the level crossing remains. Also, the disruption for those who live in Cedars Park near the point where the bridge joins up with the link road through the estate will be extended.

Taxi metering - a punishment for living in a village?

I don't know whether you've noticed the new meters that local taxi drivers now have, but I know that I have. The taxi drivers are certainly unhappy about them, especially as they're having to pay for the privilege of having one.

From a personal perspective, I've noticed that the fare from Stowmarket Station to the village is now nearly £7, a significant increase on what it was before metering, and so I questioned our District Councillor, Caroline Byles, on the subject, only to get an answer that I hadn't expected. She claims, as I understood it, that an amendment moved by the Green Party group and passed by the appropriate committee has added to the fare charged to those whose journey starts from somewhere other than the town.

This raises two questions. Firstly, Mid Suffolk is a Conservative-run council, so why are the Greens winning votes? Second, where was the consultation, or even the announcement? As a Parish Council, we might well have had something to say on the subject. In any event, I'm keen to find out what really happened. We haven't heard the last of this, I suspect...