onlineFOCUS – News and Stuff For Rochford District since 2003

We’d be interested to hear from anyone if they are noticing an increase in noise, dust or vibration from the Rawreth Industrial Estate.

September 6th, 2012 | Category: Noise and Pollution, Rawreth | Comments (1)

We’ve had an email this evening from a resident in the Trenders Avenue area of Rawreth:

As of todays date (28/05/2012) and time (19:05) there is a dreadful stench which can be smelt from our back door. It could also be smelt over the weekend.

We’d be very interested to know how far afield this can be smelt – so if you can smell it yourself, please leave a comment and tell us your approximate location. If you can confirm the source , so much the better….

May 28th, 2012 | Category: Noise and Pollution | Comments (5)

We’ve been contacted this evening by a resident in the plotlands area of Rawreth – complaining about a ‘most disgusting stench’. Possibly from the sewage works (although maybe the wind direction isn’t right for that?)

Anybody else smelling this? And if so roughly where did you live?

January 16th, 2012 | Category: Noise and Pollution | Comments (4)

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.

January 7th, 2012 | Category: Cabinet Watch, Local Democracy, Local Facilities, Noise and Pollution | Comments (3)

The District Council website has a notice telling people about an ‘environmental permit application’ in Hockley. This doesn’t seemed to have cropped up before – apparently under new regulations from last year, the public are consulted on these now.

Anyway, you can find details here. The application is for Greenacres Nursery, Folly Chase, Hockley and is for a ‘recovered oil burner’.

Consultations opened on August 22nd and are open for 4 weeks.

There’s more info on these regulations here.

August 27th, 2011 | Category: Hockley, Noise and Pollution | Leave a comment

The District Council website shows a “Notice of Application for Review of Premises Licence” for two places – the Travellers Joy pub in Rayleigh, and Lords Golf Club.

LICENSING ACT 2003
Notice of Application for Review of Premises Licence – Section 51
The Licensing Authority, Rochford District Council, hereby gives notice of an application for review of a Premises Licence in respect of
Travellers Joy, Downhall Road, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9JF.
The grounds of the application for review are that the premises are failing to promote the licensing objectives of the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance. The review will consider allegations of crime and disorder in relation to drug issues as well as a number of incidents associated with public nuisance.
Interested Parties or Responsible Authorities may make representations to the Licensing Authority (Rochford District Council). All such representations shall be made in writing, between the date of this notice and 14 August 2011.
Representations should be sent to the Licensing Unit, Rochford District Council, 3 – 19 South Street, Rochford, SS4 1BW.
A record of the licence, the grounds for the application for reviewing it and the statutory register of the licensing authority, may be inspected at the Council’s office address given above, between 0900hrs & 1600hrs Monday – Friday at the address below, or on the Authority’s website at: www.rochford.gov.uk/
(http://www.rochford.gov.uk/business__licensing/licensing/alcohol_and_entertainment/reviews_of_licenses.aspx)
It is an offence to knowingly or recklessly make a false statement in connection with an application and the maximum fine for which a person is liable on summary conviction is £5000.
Dated 18 July 2011

LICENSING ACT 2003
Notice of Application for Review of Premises Licence – Section 51
The Licensing Authority, Rochford District Council, hereby gives notice of an application for review of a Premises Licence in respect of
Lords Golf and Country Club, Hullbridge Road, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9QS.
The grounds of the application for review are that the premises are failing to promote the licensing objective of the prevention of public nuisance. The review will consider allegations of loud music emanating from the premises and accompanying noise nuisance.
Interested Parties or Responsible Authorities may make representations to the Licensing Authority (Rochford District Council). All such representations shall be made in writing, between the date of this notice and 14 August 2011.
Representations should be sent to the Licensing Unit, Rochford District Council, 3 – 19 South Street, Rochford, SS4 1BW.
A record of the licence, the grounds for the application for reviewing it and the statutory register of the licensing authority, may be inspected at the Council’s office address given above, between 0900hrs & 1600hrs Monday – Friday at the address below, or on the Authority’s website at: www.rochford.gov.uk/
(http://www.rochford.gov.uk/business__licensing/licensing/alcohol_and_entertainment/reviews_of_licenses.aspx)
It is an offence to knowingly or recklessly make a false statement in connection with an application and the maximum fine for which a person is liable on summary conviction is £5000.
Dated 18 July 2011

Comments are closed on this. If you have any questions on this, contact the council or email us.

July 22nd, 2011 | Category: Crime & Policing, Hullbridge, Leisure and Sport, Licensing, Noise and Pollution, Rayleigh | Leave a comment

We know that many people find it difficult to respond to all the different consultations that the District Council carries out.

They aren’t always simple to respond to.

But now the council has achieved a new ‘record’ . It carried out an official consultation – on air quality around Rawreth Industrial Esate – and not had one proper response.

To quote the council report:

A public consultation exercise was undertaken between 17 February 2010
and 6 April 2010 in order to seek views about the creation of an AQMA. This
related to the target level for particulate matter, also known as PM10 being
exceeded in the area shaded red on the map attached at Appendix 1. The
consultation included a presentation to West Area Committee on 4 March
2010.
.
Although some general enquiries were answered, no specific consultation
responses were received.

What’s more alarming is that a lot of businesses on Rawreth Industrial Estate feel completely in the dark about the propoals to relocate it.

April 14th, 2010 | Category: Consultations, Noise and Pollution, Rawreth | Comments (2)

The West Area committee meeting lasted 2 hours 10 minutes last night, with some decent presentations by officers and visitors and plenty of comments from residents.

Sadly, some District Councillors started to show their irritation that the meeting was going on so long. They have become used to Full Council meetings where only the officers, Terry Cutmore, some Lib Dems and John Mason speak, and everyone goes home after 45 minutes!

Two District Councillors seemed on the verge of falling asleep.

Shaun Scrutton wasn’t present, so planning issues weren’t really touched on.

Anyway, this is broadly what happened (apologies for not including everything!)

We began with a presentation on the Essex Youth Service, given by Mark Hughes from Essex County Council, and two representatives from the Rochford District Youth Council. It’s difficult to summarise briefly what they said, but councillors were interested in the annual one-day conferences that the Youth Council have held. Tory Mavis Webster, who is deputy leader of the whole District Council was concerned that she hadn’t heard about these.

We then went onto the thorny subject of a possible temporary teen shelter in Sweye Park. No decision was taken – that power is given to just one person, Councillor Lesley Butcher. But a lot was said:

We then had an update from Acting Inspector Andy Clarkson. the most interesting bit of news – last month two cars from Hullbridge were crushed because they weren’t taxed.

Finally,we has an officers report on the relatively high levels of fine air particles in the area close to the Rawreth Industrial estate, which woudl raise the risk of respiratory diseases . (You can download the report and a map here). Most of the dust was just naturally occuring, but was being stirred up by the large vehicles that go into the industrial estate. Only aa small amount apparently came from industrial processes at the site.

The council is tackling the problem by increasing the amount of road sweeping from montly to fortnightly. However one person based on the estate said that previously the road was only swept once a year and that the road service is very poor!. Chris Stanley asked when the last testing had been done there – and the answer was 2007 – no testing for almost 3 years.

Other people connected with the estate were concerned about the District Council’s proposals to relocate it….

March 5th, 2010 | Category: Crime & Policing, Hullbridge, Leisure and Sport, Noise and Pollution, Rawreth, Rayleigh | Comments (16)

From the District Council website:

Rochford District Council is to declare the first Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) for the District, at Rawreth Industrial Estate, due to marginally high levels of dust in the area.
The designation of an AQMA, as agreed at the meeting of the Executive Committee on 27 January, recognises the need for the implementation of an action plan to:
.
* reduce dust levels
* improve the health and quality of life of the public
* protect the environment
* make improvements to the area for residents and businesses.
.
Although the levels of dust found were only marginally above those recommended, the Council wants to work proactively with businesses on the industrial estate to find a solution which is most beneficial for all parties involved.
As such, Council officers have already put arrangements in place since January 2009 to double the frequency of the sweeping of roads in the area to minimise levels of dust.
.
Rochford District Council’s Head of Environmental Services, Richard Evans, said: “The area has been monitored over recent years and it has been found that the potential for dust is above the nationally prescribed levels. As such, the Council want to act to protect the welfare of residents and will be working together with businesses in the area towards mitigating the release of dust from both business premises and the use of the road”.
.
The Council will start a period of public consultation next week to ascertain the geographical boundary of the area affected and after this, develop an action plan to address the issue.
.
The Council takes the issue of air quality seriously and is currently monitoring other locations within the District, including Rayleigh High Street.

You can download the officers report here. (150 kb)

Any thoughts? Are you affected?

January 28th, 2010 | Category: Noise and Pollution, Rawreth, Rayleigh | Leave a comment

Here’s a belated look at last Wednesday’s Rawreth Parish Council Meeting.

To begin with, all the 7 Parish Councillors were there (plus of course the clerk), together with 4 people in the public seats. The nice thing about meetings like this is that all 4 visitors were able to contribute something in the public questions part of the evening…. The meeting lasted 2 hours 40 minutes – so there was much more discussion than at full meetings of the district council. Coffee, tea and coconut biscuits were provided for the public.

Rayleigh West Sewage Works: The parish councillors were not happy at all with the District Council’s failure to respond to recent messages. Phrases like ‘very disappointing’ and ‘disgrace’ were used….

Four smells in the area : There were reports of smells coming in from all over the place – Hullbridge, Battlesbridge, Beeches Road, Rawreth , Lower Road in Hockley, Asda and Kelso Close in Rayleigh and from visitors to Sweyne Park. There seem to be four sources – the Rayleigh West Sewage Works, the Shotgate Sewage Works, Sewage on a farm (which affected Lower Road) and something nasty at Imperial Park Industrial Estate in Rayleigh. This last one is at least being investigated by the District Council

Lorry movements along Rawreth Lane to the golf course: These seem to have increased again over the last couple of weeks. The Parish Clerk was asked to take this up with the District Council

The football pitches in the “Chichester” area of Rawreth : It was reported by a resident that there was scope for some nasty accidents here, with horseriders conflicting with dozens of cars bringing footballers and heavy lorries moving road planings (day and night) from County Highways compound.

The ditch by Laburnum Way in Rawreth Lane. Wimpey have said that they will install a new Hydrobrake in the drainage system for the Park School site , at a cost of £3,000. This will reduce the flow of rainwater after heavy downpours into the ditch and hopefully reduce the risk of flooding. They will hopefully also get new maintenance contractors who will not merely cut the grass near the ditch but bag it up and take it away to stop it blowing into it. A resident thanked the Parish Council for their efforts on this- though he still wasn’t completely reassured about the stones that have been put into the ditch to create a ‘French Drain”

Rawreth Brook - Parish Councillors felt very frustrated that the Environment Agency had reneged on their previous agreement to desilt Rawreth Brook.

September 7th, 2008 | Category: Asda or Makro, Noise and Pollution, Rawreth | Comments (1)

Rawreth PC held their last meeting before their summer break, and as usual offered their usual hospitality to any members of the public who came along – on this occasion, tea, coffee and swiss roll.

A lot of subjects were covered – here are a few details:

West Rayleigh Sewage works - still a lot of unhappiness with the situation. Anglian Water have been making some efforts to improve things – for example, they are going to install CCTV to make sure that vehicles leaving the site are properly sheeted. However the Parish Council is going to contact Mark Francois MP and the District Council over a particular issue that they are very concerned about (we’ll probably write a bit more about this in a couple of weeks)

The Thin Blue Line Parish Councillor Rita Coombs raised the issue of a blue line that has been drawn just inside the perimeter of Rawreth Playing Field, presumably as an instruction to dog owners to keep their dogs on the edge of the field. However Rita didn’t think that there had been any consultation on this from the District Council. She also said that if you followed the line there wasn’t room fro two dogowners to comfortably pass one another.

Grass Verges Parish Council Chairman Alistir Matthews said that some grass verges were still overgrown and in a dangerous state – there was some criticism of County Highways for not looking after them better.

Their next meeting is on the first Wednesday in September.

July 4th, 2008 | Category: Highways & Parking, Leisure and Sport, Noise and Pollution, Rawreth, Rayleigh | Comments (5)