Another new government announcement is that when a council operates a “Community Infrastructure Levy” on developers (which Rochford will introduce eventually) 15% of the money will be passed to the relevant Parish/Town Council where development is taking place with, apparently, no rules over how this cash can be spent…
Sometimes big deals between a council and a developer do go wrong.
Just look at this situation in Brentwood where 8 Lib Dems councillors, 2 Conservative, 1 Labour and 1 independent are making on a stand. A deal with a developer that was supposed to provide a cinema for the town isn’t going according to plan:
The William Hunter Way scheme has become a protracted farce having been first agreed by majority of members back in June 2007. Over five years later and nearly four years subsequent to planning approval being granted, the project has stalled.
The council’s administration has categorically failed to deliver on its promise to provide a cinema for Brentwood residents.
As a consequence, the developer has now explained to the council that they wish to renegotiate the financial deal so that it better suits them in the current economic climate. That is inevitably likely to be to the detriment of Brentwood’s council tax payers. We as undersigned view this as unacceptable.
What’s more the councillors and the council administration are in dispute over a date mentioned in a council minute…
The Echo reports here on Rayleigh Sports and Social Club:
….David Medlock, chairman of the club, said they were holding a meeting to consider their response.
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He said: “We are very surprised that despite previous assurances we were given the club would not be moved have not endured. We are equally disappointed why we have not been consulted about the reason for the decision and the consequential affect it will have.
“We are concerned that they have not appreciated the full nature of the sports and social club and the affect a move may have on the future viability.
The field contains two full size football pitches, three mini soccer pitches, a cricket pitch and a floodlight training area. The football facilities are used by seven adult teams, one youth and six boys teams. Cricket facilities are used by a total of four adult teams and three youth teams._
Lib Dem councillor Chris Black voted against the plans.He said: “The council is saying we are going to do what we want, you have to agree with our plan, that is bullying tactics. You can’t create good football pitches overnight, there will be a lot of disruption.“If the council want to do a deal then they should contact the club and come to an agreement rather than dictate.”….
Back on Jan 11th, the District Council Cabinet discussed what to do about public toilets. It’s an important subject, but it’s been a bit tricky to tell you what happened, even though a couple of opposition councillors – Chris Black and Michael Hoy – went along to the meeting.
The discussion about toilets was taken in ‘private and confidential” , so we can’t tell you what happened during the meeting – only what the minutes say. And you can download the minutes here. Regarding the public toilets , the minutes state:
Resolved
That the Public Toilet Strategy and the recommendations contained under section 8 therein, as appended to the exempt report of the Head of Environmental Services, be adopted. (HES)
Which doesn’t tell you very much because ‘exempt’ reports are confidential reports, so we can’t tell you what the Public Toilet Strategy is.
Thankfully the information has now been released to the Echo who explain it as follows:
CLOSURE-THREATENED public toilets in the Rochford district will remain open after all.
Five loos were facing the axe following budget cuts, but Rochford district councillors have had a change of heart and will now keep them open.
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The decision affects toilet blocks in Hullbridge, Hockley, Great Wakering, Rayleigh and Rochford. If the closures had gone ahead, the only Rochford Council toilet remaining would have been in Hockley Woods.
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Mike Steptoe, councillor responsible for the environment, said: “It’s is definitely not on the cards. We are now going to look at how we can maintain and bring them up to date.
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“Through a good bit of budgeting, we have managed to find some savings in other areas.”
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However, the reprieve may yet prove only to be partial, as they are still likely to close on Sundays and opening hours may also be reduced on other days…..
Leaving aside any ‘good bit of budgeting’, letting any of the toilets close would have started a really big political storm…
The ‘cabinet’ of the Distict council meets next Wednesday at 7:30. You can download the agenda from this page.
One of the items on the agenda is to start public consultation on a plan to reduce air pollution from the Rawreth Industrial Estate. The council is particularly thinking about the impact on residents in Victoria Avenue, Rowan Close and Stirling Close in Rayleigh.
Another item is the future of our public toilets. As Councillor Michael Hoy has already written, this is likely to be discussed in private and confidential session. So the public can’t watch and we can’t tell you much afterwards!
What’s perhaps worse though, are the ultra-strict rules that the Conservative Group have chosen, which currently mean that no Rayleigh Councillor is allowed to speak at these meetings. Cllr Joan Mockford and Cllr Toby Mountain are the ward members for Victoria Avenue and Stirling Close, Chris Black and Ron Oatham for Rowan close. It is bizarre that they don’t have a right to speak on the air pollution issue.
Time for the Tories to re-think this.
One Rayleigh resident told us that last weekend in Grays he saw some waxwings for the first time in his life. In fact he saw 28 of them.
If you are not sure what a waxwing is, the Essex Wildlife Trust explains that
Essex Wildlife Trust would like to hear from anybody who spots Waxwings within the county. Email: michelek@essexwt.org.uk with your sightings and pictures.
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This year has seen the largest arrival of Waxwings in the UK for many years. They have had a successful breeding season in Scandinavia and have exhausted their food supplies, so have come to the UK and Essex as they need berry bearing bushes and trees for food. They are a beautiful plump bird, slightly smaller than a starling with a mix of stunning colours and a prominent crest on their heads. The Waxwing is reddish-brown with a black throat, a small black mask round its eyes, yellow and white in the wings and a yellow-tipped tail.
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They can be seen in large flocks and are a real wildlife spectacle. There is a real chance that these birds may turn up in urban areas such as gardens, parks and even supermarket car parks. They are often seen in flocks, feeding high up and can be heard by their distinctive trilling call. ..)
The Essex WT website has a long list of sightings in Essex, including 40 in Rayleigh on Jan 31st.
Hornchurch blogger Martin Blow has some fine pictures of waxwings on his website http://blowmonkeybirding.blogspot.com
With his permission, here’s some examples (click on the thumbnails two or three times to enlarge):
Martin doesn’t only blog about birds – he also has a sighting of the rare and valuable Gianfranco Zola
Someone left the following comment on our “Daylight Stabbing in Rayleigh” post.
It’s very useful to get a teenager’s view , so we are making this as the start of a new post.
Im a teenager in rayleigh and life is not as fun full as you think, their is hardly anything for teens to do in rayleigh , and these things do not appeal to everyone, i strongly agree that knife crime is wrong and so do most teenagers in rayleigh , but from my knowledge the attacker wasent from rayleigh, and from the lady that wrote the comment at the top, king geourges park may be full of kids , but were not always doing bad things, okay your son may not have deserved that but “feral pack”is an unwise comment to make, just because some teens do bad things does not mean to say we all do, the generation of older people immediatly think that were up to no good and were always commiting crime, if you think that your seriously wrong, maybe the council should invest some money into the younger generations and give them something to do , this will decrease the ammount of kids on the street and theirfore decrease rayleigh’s very low crime rate.
Hey, of the three of us who edit this website, Jackie and Chris have teenage children, Ron has teenage grandchildren.
We really do want to see more facilities for young people. But we have to get other councillors to agree with us on what to do, find a suitable location and then the council has to find the money to do it. And even when things are agreed it always seems to take a long time, so don’t expect anything quick.
But it would help if you (and your friends) would like to leave further comments here and tell us what you want to see provided, or have any useful ideas on anything else.
This website is seen by quite a lot of people at the council, not just those who leave comments.
Chris and Ron went to Downhall School yesterday. A lot of local residents and parents were there to get more information on the proposed SureStart Centre there. We learned that:
Talking to residents and parents, opinions seem divided.
The plus points seem to be:
The main concerns from residents seem to be:
Here’s one thought of our own:-
As always, we would appreciate your views , however in this case please email us directly, there is no comments facility for this item,
Incidentally, Castle Point Labour campaigner Julian Ware Lane has an item about SureStart centres at http://warelane.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/sure-start/ “
The District Council are giving people the chance to comment on how they manage local woodlands.
Now, Rochford DC manages five local woodlands – Hockley, Kingley, Betts,Grove and New England. Hockley Woods is the largest and pretty well known. In contrast Kingley Wood is almost a secret – lots of Rayleigh people don’t even know it exists. (It is tucked away near the A127).
© Copyright terry joyce and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The questionnaire takes about 2 minutes to complete. What’r more, if you complete it you have the chance to win one of ten copies of Oliver Rackham’s “The Woods of South East Essex”, the classic book for any local nature lover.
If you are a fan of EastEnders you’ll know that Peggy Mitchell is standing for the council there- as an independent. (Click here for the lastest trailer).
This has prompted Norfolk Lib Dem Nic Starling to write a piece about the inaccuracies in how the show is covering this. For example, the Walford election is going to be on a Monday, yet all real-life elections are on a Thursday. Why have the scriptwriters got it wrong? Nic concludes:
…. Perhaps though the most common gaffe in TV is the belief that a public meeting is still the centrepiece and deciding factor in any election campaign.
Tonight’s episode of Eastenders featured a public meeting of candidates which was attended by all of 20 people yet Peggy’s performance was enough, in front of only a handful of people, to make people think that she was set to win ? Public meetings might have been decisive in the period up to the 1960′s, but I have yet to go to one that has made any difference to a campaign.
And what of Walford East ? How big would the ward be ? 3000 houses ? More ? Yet no mention is made of canvassing or delivering leaflets. A leaflet was shown in one episode but it was like something from the 1950s and nothing like leaflets 90% of people get through there doors at election time. So it begs the question why one landlady in one pub would be so well known outside of Albert Square. Clearly the Eastenders producers think that local council wards are made up of 50 houses only.
Being a councillor in the real-life version of Walford is a much tougher job than in places like Rochford. And it’s certainly something special to represent rural places like, say, Paglesham or Barling. On a day like last Sunday, to be out delivering Focus leaflets in the March sunshine…. daffodils, birdsong, blues skies, green fields, horses, babies, home made jam for sale… perfect!
This video is worth looking at …
Hockley Residents Association are still battling hard over the 7 and 8 bus services.
You can find out more from their website here.
Basically, they are investigating two issues:
“23 January 2009: Councils are failing to support bus users.
RDC have still not objected to the No.7 bus cuts (despite claims to the contrary)”
Nothing so far on the Conservative website – but then , their ‘local news’ section on Hockley hasn’t been updated for over a year.
We are Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners in Rochford District.
We want to improve local decision-making and we see onlineFOCUS as a good way of keep residents informed and involved.
Please click here to email us .
Ron Oatham
Trevor Parrett
Bruce Smart
Chris Stanley
Pam Waldie
Elena Black
If you want information on a particular planning application, you can find it on the District Council website here.
If you want to know what new planning applications have been submitted this week, click here.
If you want to report a problem, you can email Lib Dems councillors by clicking here.
There's also an independent website called FixMyStreet. It's very good for reporting minor street problems like holes in the road, grafitti or failed streetlights. You can find FixMyStreet here.
Rochford District Council carries out grass cutting on behalf of the County Council.
If you see a grass verge that badly needs cutting, you can report it
here.
This is the official master document for planning policy in our district! To download it, click here
click here. (2.5mb)
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