A unitary authority for Ipswich died in Westminster – so did our best chance to fix this town

I've had another dream. This one nearly became reality.

I dreamt that the Ipswich and South Suffolk unitary authority became a reality. Unfortunately, Jim McMahon, Labour's devolution minister, was replaced by Alison McGovern, who was then replaced by Jim McMahon, who then decided to ditch the system the previous Jim McMahon had set up. (Thought: aren't they the same person, or am I just being pedantic?)

We had a chance to redraw the proper boundaries of Ipswich. Sorry, that would include you, Kesgrave, Rushmere, Capel St Mary and Claydon.

The result would be that the people who use the services would be the same people who pay for them.

Ipswich would then be able to create a single vision.

Excuse me while I get party political for a moment. At present we have the Labour Party, which thinks Ipswich is their fiefdom and only they know what is best. They even sing their own praises loudly at Executive Committee when it is only them plus one or two councillors from other parties in the room. The Conservatives, who ran the County Council, did not have much time for Ipswich. We are yet to see how Reform act, but I'm not sure a town that is diverse and multicultural at its heart will suit them. I had better mention the Lib Dems, as I can see someone from the Lib Dems bungee jumping out of the corner of my eye.

We in the Green Party have our own vision for Ipswich, based on improving our environment and empowering our communities and community organisations.

A unitary authority would have brought clarity of purpose. At present, improvements take far too long. The original Greener Ipswich project was a wonderful concept, but it got bogged down in committees. The project had its own specific funding. There never seemed to be much of a to-do list, much to the frustration of the lay people involved. A great scheme was smothered. It had the money but ran out of time.

The Labour administration has now completed some of the project. Guess what — they are taking all of the credit.

Every project seems to take ages or doesn't happen at all. The redevelopment of Arras Square is now edging towards a conclusion after years of promises. What has happened to the projects that were going to use the Little Waitrose and the Town Hall basement?

Hopefully, the Broomhill Lido project is completed. However, it depends on the determination of a few individuals to keep this project alive. Unfortunately, by dragging the project out, it has succumbed to difficulties that could have been avoided if it had been completed quickly.

What is required is determination and decisive action.

We need a comprehensive regeneration project for the town centre run by one authority with the power to get things done and done quickly. If areas have to be changed from retail to residential, that should happen, and the home building should begin as soon as possible. If you want it to happen, you can make it happen.

You may ask where the money will come from. Well, Whitehouse and Stoke Park have each been given £20m, with no idea what the money will be spent on. What they have done is spend a year setting up (wait for it…) committees. No doubt organisations will have to bid for money, filling out enormous forms, when they should immediately be putting back the social infrastructure we used to have — youth clubs, Sure Start centres, community centres that will provide whatever the community needs, by and for the community.

Ideas and plans should come first. Funding should come once a vision is formed.

A unitary authority would also have had a chance to sort out the traffic management in Ipswich. Regardless of whether you want a bypass, bridge or tunnel — another decision mired in competing visions, reports and committee meetings — Ipswich's traffic system needs radical attention. Cars, cycles and pedestrians often fight over the same space.

The other day, I was walking down Woodbridge Road when someone struggled to cycle up the hill, followed by a queue of slow traffic, while I walked down the hill and was nearly taken out by a mobility scooter silently whizzing past me.

We have no real cycle lanes. Neither cars, cyclists nor pedestrians are properly catered for.

Get rid of the one-way system. If the council officers look in their drawers, they will find old reports saying it is a problem, not a solution.

Sort out the Ely Junction to open up more train capacity.

Reinstate the Park and Ride at ASDA and increase bus usage.

Here's a radical idea that works in other towns. Introduce a 20mph speed limit in the town centre. That is the average speed anyway. That would let us replace Pelican crossings with more courtesy crossings, so traffic flow isn't interrupted by cars stopping at crossings after the pedestrian has already crossed.

Introduce proper cycle lanes so cyclists can feel safe and not annoy cars stuck behind the few cyclists brave enough to cycle in Ipswich.

But this dream will have to wait while the Labour government sorts out what it wants to do. Or Reform spends more money from its friendly crypto billionaire, ensuring that any certainty becomes uncertain and they hold on to their power.

Meanwhile Ipswich has to wait for clarity of vision and purpose.

Well, the powers that be all seem to be happy to wait 15 years for a bypass/bridge/tunnel [delete which does not apply].

I think I am drifting into another dream. I'll leave that one for another day.

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