I am grateful to the Fire Service for their response to the blaze at Delphi, Sudbury. We obviously need to wait for them to make the site safe and undertake their investigation, and should avoid speculation thereupon. In the meantime, I can imagine many people in the town will share my frustration – which I wrote about only last week in my Suffolk Free Press column – at the lack of engagement we’ve had from the owners since the site was purchased from Delphi Diesel Systems, not replying to any of my letters. Whilst we cannot know exactly what caused the fire, it is clear that the state of ongoing idle use of this once thriving factory is in nobody’s interest.
On a personal note, and on my last formal day as MP before dissolution, this is the second time that I have found myself driving on the edge of Sudbury, witnessing a huge plume of black smoke on the horizon, towards the town centre. The first time was in September 2015, a few months after being elected for the first time, when I was filling my car at a Sudbury petrol station as the fire near HSBC took hold; this time I was driving through the town after campaigning nearby. In those intervening years, the town has by and large recovered from the high street fire, so let’s hope we use this moment to restore our industrial heartland. Whoever is elected MP for South Suffolk should make it a priority to sit down urgently with Babergh’s Economic Development Department, and look at all the options to take this site forward in a way that benefits the town, rather than consigns it to continued risk and decay - as difficult as this can be with a non-responsive proprietor. Ultimately, we had what appeared a credible offer to buy the site for continued motor manufacture, when I was Chair of the South Suffolk Taskforce – the previous owners, in their wisdom, rejected that offer and were forced to sell at what we understand was a knock down price, to a landlord who has seemed disinterested in the town, to say the least. That needs to change.
