BBC Local Live: Suffolk

Parts of Lowestoft are still clearing up after a weekend of gales and torrential rain. Some families in Aldwyck Way had to salvage what they could, after flood water burst through defences.

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Vanessa Westburgh, pictured above, hopes a concrete barrier will be be put up to protect householders.

Tanya Barker, chairman of the Residents Association, says it was just horrendous: "The rain started falling and it just quickly came up to the top of my bum actually... we had no lighting either so we were all in pitch black, we were trying to get torches so we could support everyone."

A small West Suffolk charity is planning to expand a scheme to help both elderly and young people across the county after winning £25,000 in a national funding competition.

Sara Thornton's told us there wasn't as much rain yesterday in Suffolk as Friday by quite a long way; some spots on Friday saw more than 50mm (nearly 2in) of rain, whereas yesterday's rain brought at most 21mm (0.87in).

Isaacs on the QuayCopyright: Isaacs on the Quay

However, when totalled up, many spots in the county had more than a month's worth of rain in a 72-hour period.

A mixture tonight of showers, variable cloud and clear spells. Staying quite windy which will help keep temperatures up.

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Minimum Temperature: 12C (54F).

A few showers lingering first thing tomorrow but they should quickly clear eastwards to leave a mainly dry but breezy day. Still a fair amount of cloud but there will be some bright or sunny spells coming through. Highs of 19C (66F).

Building work and number of developments under way in Ipswich shows the town has potential, despite a tough few years.

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Ipswich Central chairman Terry Baxter said: "It's been a tough time, but if you look now at the shopping centres, Tower Ramparts, soon to be Sailmakers, and you look at the old Buttermarket Shopping Centre that's been taken over, you can see that there's rapid work now.

"So they're more suitable for modern-day traders, and a real commitment to invest money into the county town, and that's got to be a good thing," he said.

People in Southwold are to be asked to help pay for the restoration of the town's famous cannons.

Southwold Town CouncilCopyright: Southwold Town Council

Campaigners need an extra £12,000 if they are to complete the work

Three of the carriages on Gun Hill have already been restored but Town Cllr Will Windell says more cash is needed for repairs: "The main problem is the wooden undercarriages. They were... replaced in 1952 so they're in need of repair, some of them have gone rotten and also some of the cast wheels were rusting away."

Organisers at Jimmy's Farm say they had planned to try and avoid traffic queues heading for their Sausage and Beer Festival at the weekend.

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18,500 people were at the event on Saturday and Sunday, with many complaining on the festival's Facebook page about queues on the A137 and A14 junctions near Ipswich.

A festival spokesman said: "We have worked closely with the Suffolk Advisory Group, the local authority, the police and fire and ambulance services who all advised the traffic plans were suitable for the license. We will endeavour to improve upon all aspects."

These are the stories making the news:

• Jimmy's Farm will address feedback on queues after this weekend's Sausage & Beer Festival
• A man's been taken to hospital after falling through a roof in Hadleigh
• £12,000 is needed to complete restoration work on the Southwold cannons

More funding for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will be put into Suffolk's health services.

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An additional £233,000 for mental health wards at at Ipswich Hospital and West Suffolk Hospital has been provided by two of the count's clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

Wendy Tankard, chief contracts officer for the CCGs, said: "This additional investment recognises the increased demand for the support and therapy required by patients with this condition, to help improve their lives."

Here's a photograph of the demolition work being carried out on the site of the former Ipswich police station.

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Did you work there? How does it feel to see it being demolished in this way?

We'd love to hear your memories. Email us or post a message on our Facebook page.

A Dutch yacht stranded off Lowestoft with a damaged sail and no power has been towed back into the town's harbour in difficult sea conditions.

Hundreds of young aspiring technology entrepreneurs have come together at events across the UK today to build new apps and websites in the Festival of Code, with BT Adastral Park one of 70 places around the country taking part.

FunTechCopyright: FunTech

Next weekend they'll all come together in Birmingham to show off what they've produced. Since the festival was founded seven years ago there has been a surge in interest in coding and it's now on the curriculum in English schools.

If you want to put the weekend's rainfall into context, you might like to know that Suffolk had just over 70mm (2.75in) of rain over the weekend, while the average rainfall for the county in the summer is around 150mm (5.9in).

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The wettest summer on record in East Anglia was 1912, when 321.77mm (more than 12in) of rain fell.

And the driest? That was 1921, with just 56.7mm (2in).

Jimmy's Farm says it will be looking to improve next year's Sausage & Beer Festival after a deluge of Facebook complaints about the campsite, traffic problems and lengthy queues for beer and toilets at the weekend's event.

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Organisers said 18,500 people attended over the Saturday and Sunday at TV star Jimmy Doherty's farm near Ipswich.

A spokesman said: "We are committed to addressing all the feedback from our visitors and will work with the local authorities, our internal logistics teams and suppliers to ensure that 2016 will be a smoother experience for everyone."

The East of England Ambulance Service says a man's been taken to hospital after falling through a roof in Pond Hall Road, Hadleigh.

An ambulance crew and Hazardous Area Response Team were called out to a man in his 50s who had suffered an injury to his head after falling through a first floor roof.

He was treated at the scene before being taken to Ipswich Hospital for further treatment. His injuries aren't believed to be life-threatening.

One lane is closed on the A14 eastbound between junction 58 (A12 Seven Hills) and junction 59 (Kirton) because of an overturned car.

There's also a lane closure eastbound at junction 49 (A1308 Stowmarket) because of a broken down lorry.

If you're just joining us:

• Organised crime gangs are targeting high value tractors in Suffolk
• A pub has reopened after it was hit by a car last night in Ipswich
• Traders in Bungay are asking Barclays to rethink its decision to close the branch in October

Traders in Bungay are appealing to Barclays Bank to rethink its decision to close the town's branch in October.

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They say the move would leave them with only one bank, and that's now just open part-time.

The president of Bungay's Chamber of Commerce, Simon Thompson, says he doesn't think it's been thought through properly at all: "We have a big development which is near completion on the Norfolk side with hundreds of people now living there, we have a new development which is going to be happening up by the swimming pool and that is 150 units."

We've just taken a call saying there's been an accident at the junction of Beach Station Road and Langer Road in Felixstowe, at the traffic lights. It's causing some delays in the area.

Statistics show people in Ipswich are spending more money than in recent years prompting growth in the town centre, says the Chairman of Ipswich Central.

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Terry Baxter said: "Retailers don't just move in or develop their stores at a whim, they'll look at the data, they'll look at the confidence in the area, they'll look at the money that's being spent, and there is more money being spent per head in Ipswich town centre.

"That gives the retailers and the developers the confidence to put the money where their mouth is, and they're doing that at the moment," he said.

A Suffolk pub has reopened after a car crashed into it yesterday evening.

Luke CoppenCopyright: Luke Coppen

Structural engineers were called out to check The Raven pub on Hening Avenue on the Ravenswood estate in Ipswich.

A person trapped inside the car was rescued by Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service.

Although there are plenty of complaints about traffic, beer and toilet queues and camping on the Jimmy's Sausage and Beer Festival Facebook page, there are some positive comments.

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Rob Clark from Chelmsford posted to say "Excellent day... Food was amazing; superb choice of beers... Queuing was a touch excessive for the bar and loos but this didn't detract from an amazing day all in all..."

Laura Rolph-Wills managed to get a photo of her son with BBC CBeebies' Justin Fletcher and posted: "Thank you for raising funds for EACH [East Anglian's Children's Hospices] and helping my little boy have one of his dreams come true."

Greater Anglia tweet: #Halesworth - Due to a passenger taken ill on a train services between Lowestoft and Ipswich/Norwich may be cancelled or delayed.

This was the scene on Friday night in The Street at Carlton Colville.

Lowestoft Weather WarningsCopyright: Lowestoft Weather Warnings

Homes in Suffolk were left flooded as four inches (10cm) of rain fell in 24 hours.

This afternoon, things are set to become a little brighter and drier but there's still the chance of a shower near Lowestoft and the coast.

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Highs today of 20C (68F). Tonight's set to stay dry at first but showers will move across the county later.

Today's full forecast is available here.

Suffolk Police says organised criminal gangs are targeting high-value farm vehicles rather than cheaper models these days.

Port of FelixstoweCopyright: Port of Felixstowe

Police units at the Port of Felixstowe said plant is being stolen to order around the world and can be out of the UK in containers within 48 hours.

PC Mark Bryant said John Deere tractors were the main target: "[Gangs] have a good working knowledge of agricultural machinery, know how to drive them and know how to steal them which goes to indicate this is organised crime as opposed to random, opportunistic crime."

Two employees have left Suffolk Police after being convicted of offences since temporary police boss Gareth Wilson has been there, he says.

He said: "In Suffolk we do have six people that have a previous conviction. Three were prior to joining the organisation, and three were post joining the organisation.

"They go through a disciplinary hearing as well and if it's right and proper, they do get dismissed...since I've been here we've had two cases... one officer has resigned and one has been dismissed, so we take a really strict view of it," he said.

A reader has sent in a shocking video showing a driver overtaking a car on a blind bend, almost hitting an oncoming vehicle in Woolverstone.

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With rain forecast for this week across Beds, Herts and Bucks, this short film explaining what showers are seems rather apt.

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BBC Weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker takes us through the quick animation explaining why showers are difficult to forecast.

The EADT newspaper has posted a review of Jimmy's Sausage and Beer Festival which took place just outside Ipswich at the weekend.

It has a gallery of photos as well as a report on the traffic problems on the A14 Wherstead and Copdock junctions on Saturday.

There's queuing traffic on the A140 in both directions in Thornham Magna at the Workhouse Road junction, in the roadworks. Congestion to the B1117 Yaxley Road junction, and The Street Junction.

And the B1084 is closed at Orford Road in Butley around the Mill Lane junction because of flooding.

The BBC has put in calls to Jimmy's Farm after the Beer and Sausage Festival's own Facebook page was inundated with complaints about traffic queues, hour-long queues for the beer tents, queues for toilets and the quality of the field for camping.

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Sally Russell is one of many who posted to complain about how the field for camping was covered in stones and "unfit for purpose" while bar staff "themselves queued for tills".

We wait to see if Jimmy and Michaela Doherty felt things could have been done better.

A national police unit says it's trying to stay ahead of organised international criminal gangs moving stolen tractors through the Port of Felixstowe.

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NFU Mutual Insurers said it paid out £5.6m to UK farmers last year, down from £10.2m in 2010 and it was putting it down to improved security advice, but gangs were constantly changing their tactics.

Det Con Chris Piggott, field officer for National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, said: "We've made arrests where people have got contacts on their phone in five or six different countries as far away as Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey and eastern Europe. We just need to try to keep one step ahead of them the way we play things"

Suffolk's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and temporary Chief Constable were asked by the general secretary of Suffolk Police Federation about the impact of possible cuts to police funding of between 25% and 40%.

PCC Tim Passmore said it would be "one hell of a challenge". He added if the time came when he felt Suffolk was being unfairly penalised, he'd be "up there" arguing the county's case with the government.

Acting Chief Constable Gareth Wilson described the potential cuts as "absolutely eye-watering".

I went to Jimmy's Sausage and Beer Festival near Ipswich on Saturday and have to agree with many of the complaints on the festival's Facebook page about the queues.

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The queues for the beer tents put me off even bothering in the end (something had clearly gone wrong for an event which is billed as a beer festival) and there were no walk-in urinals for men which would have cut toilet queues massively for both sexes.

That said, the music, food and children's entertainment (Justin Fletcher pictured) was great and no-one can stop the rain.

Here are the top stories:

• Top bosses at the county's police force have been answering questions from BBC Suffolk listeners over the last hour
• People living in Pakefield are clearing up after their homes were flooded over the weekend
• Jimmy's Farm has been subjected to a deluge of complaints over queues at its Sausage and Beer Festival

Residents on Aldwyck Way in Pakefield are clearing up after their homes flooded in the early hours of Saturday morning.

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A stream breached at the back of their properties. Many have had to rip out carpets and flooring on the ground floor.

During the Hot Seat, Suffolk's Police and Crime Commissioner also said he would be opposing the closure of magistrates' courts.

Tim Passmore said if the courts at Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds do shut, Suffolk will be the only shire county to have just one magistrates' court.

He added he'll do everything he can to make sure that doesn't happen.

Speaking during BBC Suffolk's Hot Seat session, temporary Chief Constable Gareth Wilson wouldn't be drawn over whether he'd like the role permanently.

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He's been in the post since December, when the force's Chief Constable Douglas Paxton went on sick leave.

Mr Wilson said it wouldn't be appropriate at this stage to talk about taking the role indefinitely, although in terms of his career plan he did admit he'd like to serve as Chief Constable somewhere in the country in the future.

Suffolk's Police and Crime Commissioner has again denied falling out with Chief Constable Douglas Paxton who's been on sick leave since December.

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Tim Passmore admitted he has "no idea" when or even if Mr Paxton will return to his role.

He added: "I'm being as transparent as I possibly can be, it's nothing to do with personal relationships... we'll get it concluded as soon as we possibly can."

As well as rain, Jimmy's Farm has been subjected to a deluge of complaints about traffic, toilet and bar queues at its Sausage and Beer Festival this weekend.

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Emma Freeman Tinsley was one of many who took to Facebook to complain and called it "the most badly managed event I have ever been to".

She said: "It could have been a great event - there was so much there to enjoy, but the 2 hour traffic queue, 1 hour queue for the beer each time, and 30 minute toilet queue for the toilet each time means we missed much of the event but spent most of it....... queuing."

People living in Suffolk have been reassured over the way police will deal with incidents in the light of financial restraints.

Speaking to BBC Suffolk, the county's Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore said: "Emergency response from the constabulary is second to none and it will remain so."

Temporary Chief Constable Gareth Wilson said: "Where appropriate we'll signpost people... where people need a response we'll always be able to provide that support."

Suffolk's temporary Chief Constable and the county's Police and Crime Commissioner are taking part in BBC Suffolk's Hot Seat session this morning.

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Tim Passmore (pictured left) and Gareth Wilson will be taking calls to BBC Suffolk over the next hour.

A clean-up operation is continuing in Lowestoft this morning after a weekend deluge left properties in Aldwyk Way flooded.

Stephen HuntleyCopyright: Stephen Huntley

The downpours also left several roads in Lowestoft and Carlton Colville under water and near impassable on Saturday morning.

A safe swimming area could be created at Alton Water reservoir at Tattingstone near Ipswich following the death of a man last month.

Ed Maxwell/GeorgraphCopyright: Ed Maxwell/Georgraph

The 22-year-old is believed to have got into difficulty in the water while swimming during warm weather at the end of June.

Emma Staples from Anglian Water told BBC Suffolk they're waiting for reaction from the safety organisation ROSPA: "It may be an absolute "no", it may be something they say we should consult with the local community on because ultimately we don't want to do anything that's not going to help. We want to do something that's going to be effective."

Tractors and other farm equipment is being "stolen to order" and shipped abroad via the Port of Felixstowe by crime gangs.

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About £2m worth of stolen plant is recovered each year at the port, police said.

Det Con Nick Shrubshall, who is based at the port, said: "They can be stolen and out of the country within 48 hours quite easily because the gangs are that well organised. They're across continents now - they're moving stuff all around the world"

Greater Anglia tweet: #Felixstowe - Due to a train fault at Ipswich services to Felixstowe have been suspended. A replacement bus service will operate.

It's been a very wet weekend across Suffolk. Jason Alexander, from Rushmere, told me they recorded 5.4cm (more than 2in) overnight of rainfall overnight on Friday at the Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm.

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Have you got pictures of any flooding or problems caused by the rain? We'd love to see them. You can email us or post a message on our Facebook page.

First Ipswich tweet: Road Closure: Aldeburgh Road, Leiston (Service 64A) from today. Here are the full details.

Ipswich Town defender Matt Clarke is set to join Portsmouth on loan before the start of the new season. The 18-year-old, who made his Town debut at Crawley last August, scored for the League Two club in a pre-season friendly on Friday night.

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Town manager Mick McCarthy says the deal will be completed once he's recruited defensive cover: "He'll be going on loan when I'm ready to do it.

"They're delighted with him and I really want him to get some football because he's a great kid and he's a good player and he needs to play at a professional level. So he will go but I just need to try to make sure I'm covered."

NHS jobs in Ipswich are at risk from privatisation according to a report leaked to the Liverpool Echo.

Two teenagers were rescued from the sea at Felixstowe on Saturday afternoon after they got into trouble.

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Felixstowe's Volunteer Coast Patrol Rescue Service was already in the water and was able to get to them quickly.

John Cresswell, from the service, said: "Fortunately, the volunteer was only 500 or 600 yards away at the time so she was on the scene in a minute to find that two young people were disappearing underneath the water. She was able to recover them and take them aboard within a minute and a half."

The A140 in Scole is partially blocked and there's slow traffic near the 143 junction, because of an accident.

Rather cloudy during the morning with some heavy showers.

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Becoming a little brighter and drier during the afternoon, but some heavy showers may continue towards Lowestoft. It will become rather breezy.

Maximum Temperature: 20C (68F). Check out the full details with Sara Thornton.

These are the top stories making the news so far this morning;

• Farm equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds is being stolen here in Suffolk and shipped abroad
• A person had to be rescued by firefighters after a car crashed into a pub on the Ravenswood estate in Ipswich yesterday evening
• The safety organisation ROSPA is to review measures at Alton Water near Ipswich after a 22-year-old man died there last month

Good morning and thanks for joining us for a new week on Suffolk Live.

Between now and 18:00 you'll see news, travel, sport and weather updates as they happen.

If there's anything we haven't spotted that you think the rest of the county should know about, then send us an email or post a message on our Facebook page.