Tag Archives: Bergholt Road

A big thank you from Ness!

Thank you so much to the 1,624 Mile End residents who voted for Venessa so that she can continue her hard work on behalf of everyone living here. Venessa told us after her incredible win:

“It is an honour to be elected in Mile End this year, and thanks so much to all the residents who have put their faith in me. Thanks to Phil Coleman, David King and Martin Goss, of course, for all their continuing hard work. I am already hearing a lot from residents about various concerns and will work hard to support all residents of Mile End.”

Your Mile End survey responses

We have been out knocking on thousands of doors in our area getting your views and feedback on Mile End.

Your priorities include the NHS (we fight for better pay & recruitment).
Climate change (we press Government to keep their promises. And do
all we can, from installing heat pumps & insulation, to tree planting)
Education and schools (where we press for better funding, a Personal
Education and Skills Account to help later life learning and
more apprenticeships). We also help schools directly with
grants towards gardens and forest schools and help with planners).

Locally you like what we do (thank you!) but ask we continue to chase the
County Council over road repairs and to help tackle litter. We do of course!

All change at North Station

You will no doubt have seen the measures put in place by Essex County Council funded by Government to give cycling and walking more prominence at North Station, Essex Hall Road, North Station Road and the town centre.

As traffic levels returned to normal these did start to cause congestion issues. Essex County Council listened to our collective local feedback and removed some measures on North Station Road and Essex Hall Roundabout. The bus lane and one traffic lane at North Station heading South was left in place.

This caused major congestion and meant traffic took up to an hour to leave Asda. Following complaints Martin Goss and David King met with a Senior Highway officer onsite as well as a member of the Colchester Cycling group. Between us a solution was agreed, the closed traffic lane was fully reinstated, and improvements made to the cycle lane. Traffic congestion issues were greatly reduced as a result of our collective intervention.

£300 reward to catch the graffiti bandit

You may have seen some of the graffiti around Mile End on Turner Rise, Turner Road and North Station where around 26 different incidents of graffiti were recorded on various bus shelters, fences, houses and bins.

Most of this has now been cleaned up but wastes taxpayers money in having to carry out such an extension clean-up when resources could be spent on more valuable community projects.

Cllr’s Martin Goss and David King have offered a £200 reward for information leading to the apprehension and prosecution of the culprit. A local resident has also offered a further £100 bringing the total to £300.

If you know anything please get in touch with absolute confidence by calling Martin Goss on 07912 396335 or email Martin@MartinGoss.org.uk

Cleaning up graffiti and litter in Mile End

Martin Goss carries a graffiti cleaning kit in his car so when local graffiti is easy
enough to remove with graffiti wipes he will jump into action to clean up our area quickly.

Martin said “It is proven if we remove graffiti within hours of it being sprayed it can be demotivating to the “tagger.” If it gets left it is considered a badge of honour and gives the “artist” something to brag about.

If you see it, please report via www.colchester.gov.uk/recycling or contact any
member of the team.”

Trinity School Update

You may have read the good news that 120 places for September 2021 are now guaranteed at the new Trinity School. The school places will be served out of the Gilberd site for the first academic year and in order to ensure there is enough space some existing classrooms will be refurbished and an extension will happen to the school. Long-term this area will be used for teacher training once the pupils move to the permanent school site.

Frustratingly the school building won’t be open at Cordelia Drive for September 2021. There have been some delays between the Department for Education (DFE) and Essex County Council. Mersea Homes have ploughed on regardless with the site which they have to prepare prior to handover in September 2020. Mersea Homes will hand the site to Essex County Council who will then put in place legal “Heads of Terms“ with DFE for the building of the school. The school building will be ready for September 2022. The Primary School is now mooted to be September 2024, although this will be subject to the school places needed in the area. Currently pre-secondary school places, there are ample spaces at local schools.

You can visit the schools website at www.thetrinityschool.co.uk for all the latest information.

Parking issues in Mile End

With the General Hospital, main line station and a professional football club in the ward there are challenges with parking.

We meet regularly with the hospital estate managers who assure us they want to be good neighbours and are looking at travel plans for their employees to stop parking on nearby residential areas.

We have been contacted by residents on a number of developments asking for restrictions to be put in place. For this to happen the road or area would need support from 75% of residents before the plan could go forward to North Essex Parking Partnership for consideration.

We are happy to facilitate this but to date most residents do not favour restrictions. We would ask that drivers park considerately and any poor or dangerous parking is reported.

Dangerous parking or blocking the path can be reported to police on 101, all other issues can be reported to NEEP on 01206 282316.

Mile End Secondary Schools update!

Schools update – the new FIGHT for residents. We fought for new schools and facilities. We said new homes must come with infrastructure – and on time. We were promised they would but Essex County Council planners have failed us all with school delays and a lack of school places in north Colchester. Now we must fight to reduce the delay and disruption.

We will INSIST that County commit to the new secondary school being here for 2021/22. We will demand that they make every effort to MINIMISE the travel for any child who cannot be placed locally, like at the Gilberd and that they provide help with transport for those facing a long journey. And we will make this personal – we will tell the County Council what is needed. We will ask that they write and explain. And we will get the County Education boss to come and LISTEN to you.

Anne Turrell is our lead. She has already emailed or visited over a dozen residents and will help others as they need. But, we will also get out to you our best advice – our ‘What to Do’ key points if you appeal against a school placement.

Phil Coleman said “As a teacher of over 20 years I’ve seen first hand how the decentralization and in-effect privatization of Education via Academies now leads to community wrecking situations like this where their own admission criteria can be set.

Sending children on two bus journeys to the other side of town in simply not acceptable. We need Government to fund the school now, not tell us we have enough school places across the town completely ignoring local community needs.”

Speeding issues

ACTION has been taken in response to YOUR
complaints over speeding, including in Northern
Approach Road, Axial Way, Bergholt Road and
Apprentice Drive. The police have limited
resources and must prioritise where they are
deployed.

It helps us all if you continue to report concerns
on 101 and let us know of issues as they arise.
But the GOOD NEWS – the Community Policing
team have responded to us, have visited and
have taken enforcement action. We will ask for
more if needed!

New bench for Bergholt Road recreation ground

Funded as part of the Cllr Locality budget a new bench will shortly be installed at the Bergholt Road recreation ground.

This request came from local residents who wanted to see more seating in the area so this bench has been funded and ordered.

It’s the little things that make a huge difference so we are very happy to support this request. We are so pleased to support the community.

Phil Coleman, Martin Goss, David King & Anne Turrell

Mile End Team