A Busy 130 Minutes

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:

  • Chris Black got assurances that all adjoining residents will be consulted before a decision is taken.
  • Conservative District Councillor Simon Smith stressed that the proposal hadcome from pupils at Sweyne Park School.
  • Conservative District Councillor Joan Mockford said the one in John Fisher field was too small , there was only enough room for 2 or 3 people, causing others to move off elsewhere and cause trouble. Officers told her that the proposed shelter held 6-8.
  • The police had mixed views, saying that the one by Websters Way has been a success, but even so there had been 3 arrests there in the last 3 weeks.
  • Dave Sperring , Conservative Chairman of the Town Council, said it had helped to reduce crime in Rayleigh town centre, but there was no guarantee what it would do in Sweyne Park.
  • One resident who lives near the park spke at length about problems of vandalism and was very critical of the District Council for considering this.
  • Resident Chris Stanley said that youths were already gathering in the wooden bus shelter in Downhall Road, spitting and swearing.
  • Another resident said that a teen shelter isn’t going to solve the overall problem- what happened to youth clubs?
  • The reps from the Youth Council said that they do work – and there was nothing else in Sweyne Park
  • Lib Dem District Councillor Chris Lumley emphasised the responsibility of parents
  • When pressed by Chris Black, officers said that the shelter shouldn’t be placed too close to homes, but shouldn’t be hidden in the centre of the park either.
  • Tory Rayleigh Town Councillor Ian Ward said we needed more youth facilities in Rayleigh
  • One resident just moved from Romford was very unhappy that there was nothing like a bowling alley or ice rink in the town centre
  • One of the Youth Council reps said that she wouldn’t walk through Sweyne Park in the dark.
  • 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….

    About the author, admin

  • This was the first meeting that I have attended and I left feeling totally disillusioned with the whole process. I felt that the issue of the Teen Shelter, was, in the eyes of the council, a ” done deal” and residents concerns were not being listened to. It’s a matter of record that the RDC officer speaking about the shelter did not know about the measures to decide if it will be success or not nor did she know how long the temporary period would last.

    I urge all local residents to oppose this scheme – we now have the consultation process and it’s my belief that RDC will either keep this a quiet as possible or ask as few people as possible in order to get this shelter in the park. Who will decide the people to be consulted ? The survey must go to everyone in the area and not just a few people who live near the entrance / car park.

    Will Chris & Ron please find out on our behalf when this will take place and also how do people input to the survey, I want this to be completely transparent so that we can be sure of the result.

    Ask yourself this –

    • In the summer months will the equivalent of a bus shelter in the park reduce the problems of youth nuisance ?

    • Do you want youths travelling in from Rochford, Hullbridge & Southend intent on causing anti social behaviour ?

    • Do you want youths outside your home at 11.00pm on a Friday / Sat night, probably drunk ?

    OPPOSE THIS SCHEME WHILST WE ARE STILL AT THIS STAGE – ONCE IT GOES AHEAD IT WILL NEVER BE REMOVED.

    *** As a footnote to this post – it’s not always easy to go out to a meeting after a long day at work but I really urge you attend at least once – you might be very surprised at how RDC & councillors make decisions that directly affect you….the people that pay their wages.

  • Hi, Re:Shelter

    The decision on the Hawkwell Shelter was taken at Executive Committee after a recommendation from the Central Area Committee.

    Why is this one different? Why did WAC not make a recommendation resolution for decision by either the Exec or The Portfolio Holder. Was the Portfolio Holder present to hear from residents first hand before a decision is made?

    If it is a decision by an individual councillor why was WAC consulted if it is not going to be listened to?

    John

  • RR: we will keep an eye on this, definitely and will keep residents informed.

    John: I think the right time for WAC to make a representation is after a residents consultation and we know the proposed location.

    Lesley Butcher was not present.

    FYG, back in January I asked this item to go on this agenda because it gave local residents a good chance to come along, being fairly close by. I also thought then that a decision was imminent, and bearing in mind that the youth service and the police were already coming it gave a good opportunity for discussion.

  • Rayleigh Resident, We have a teen shelter in Hullbridge that has been in place for a year and I would like to reassure you that it has worked well. Hullbridge Parish Council has not received any complaints from local residents nor have the police reported any incidents to us.

  • RR, if you felt that this was a ‘done deal’ , come along to a council meeting in the council chamber and be really disillusioned !!

    Planning applications are dealt with fairly, but nearly everything else is a rubber stamping process…..

  • ( Angelina ) My concerns over this proposal are based on a long history of anti social behaviour from local youths and from those travelling in from other areas. I urge all residents to oppose this scheme at the consultation stage before it’s too late, if these kids want to sit in/on a shelter then I suggest they go to Hullbridge asap.

  • I am surprised nobody has mentioned the article in last nights Echo about a 15 year old boy being attacked at the Victoria Ave entrance to Sweyne Park at 5.30 in the evening on Saturday.

    I was pretty undecided about the teen Shelter until I read this. Sweyne park is such a vast open space and if this sort of thing has happened when there is no teen shelter, Imagine what it will be like if large groups start gathering here.

  • Downhall Resident, I too was surprised that this assault was not mentioned anywhere. This is the sort of incident that should be deplored on all the websites that serve Rochford district. This is just the sort of incident that we should all have our say on. Do we have to adjust to this type of attack on residents of our neighberhoud? If we let this type of crime go without our comment does it mean we condone such attacks? What are the police doing with this attack and more importantly what are the police doing to stop these attacks? Please can we have some comments from the Police and RDC?

  • Mike, obviously we don’t condone this attack and from what I can gather from the Echo report, it seems very nasty. Particularly the mention of ‘severe ear injuries’

    According to the report http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/southend/5060085.Teenager_dragged_along_pavement_by_attackers/ the police have already arrested 3 individuals, aged 14 , 15 and 18 but are appealing for further information.

    I also see that there’s been four burglaries in Rayleigh in recent days, so be warned!

  • Chris, How did you manage to post a comment under my name?

    Do you know what part of Rayleigh these burglaries took place and was it daytime or night time they took place?

  • Mike, not sure what happened there at all – your comment is under my name now, apologies. The software allows us editors to edit comments, but it certainly wasn’t intentional. The only info we have on the burglaries is from the Echo. By the way, we’ve added a newsfeed from the Echo at the bottom of our left sidebar.

  • NO TO A TEEN SHELTER..This proves my point exactly. Chris – do we have any news on the consultation yet please. I urge all local people to oppose this scheme now.

  • Whilst other places in the district have had no problems with these, Hawkwell has and if you search on my site http://rochfordessex.com you can read about the initial views of residents put forward at Central Area Committee, how it went forward with a recommendation, a consultation that was conducted in a way that some residents objected to and the massive vandalism that was exerted on a structure that was said to be vandal proof. Things have been quiet recently though.

  • Lake Meadows park in Billericay has a teen shelter behind the swimming pool building. Sadly the adjacent new climbing frame was torched shortly after installation.

    I’m not convinced that the presence of a teen shelter is the cause, but providing the facility certainly did not prevent the vandalism. For Sweyne park, again I’m not entirley sure that a teen shelter would make things worse, as youths just congregate either by the wall/basketball hoop area, or in the cloverleaf playground at the moment anyway. The shelter MAY mean that they leave the playground alone, but I doubt it, some will sit in the shelter some times and in the playground at others.

    As for drawing teenagers from other areas to cause trouble in Rayleigh, this appears to happen at other locations that have teen shelters, but I would imagine it is more likely the presence of groups of local teenagers that is the draw for this “commuting” behaviour, rather than the shelters themselves, and as I said, we already have groups of teenagers hanging around the area anyway.

    With all this in mind, I can’t see that a teen shelter would make things any better or any worse, and if this is the case it’s a waste of time building it.

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