Tag Archives: Colchester Council

Shepherd Drive sign replaced

Small things matter, including correcting accidental damage caused by others.

For some reason an HGV delivering to the local Coop store on Nayland Road,
decided to take a wrong turn into Dickenson Road in August 2021, which
is a very narrow 20mph zone.

Martin Goss got onto the East of England Coop and after being pushed from pillar to post was eventually given details of the Manchester Coop who deliver for East of England Coop.

Martin said “I got the right contact after numerous emails and being pushed from pillar to post but tenacity pays off! The Coop insurers paid Colchester Council for a new sign and repair work where the verge was also badly damaged.

It has taken 5 months to sort this out but I am pleased to say the massive hole left and damaged sign have been repaired and rightly at nil cost to the taxpayer.

Residents are delighted with the new sign and repair.”

Mill Road youth shelter

Due to anti social behaviour at the Mill Road youth shelter, which has included
the smoking and dealing of drugs and late night noise, the sides to the shelter
have been removed to help discourage this behaviour.

The situation will be closely monitored and the police are aware of the issues.
If you witness or are concerned about any anti-social behaviour then please let us know.

Northern Approach Road bus lane

The planning application for the Northern Approach Road bus and cycle lane has finally been submitted for planning approval by Essex County Council.

Colchester Council planning committee will be the final arbiters on the scheme approval. Cllr Martin Goss called the scheme in for their approval as some
concerns are raised about the design.

Although the bus lane has been known about since the inception and build of the houses on the Northern Approach Road development in 2003 the whole design has changed as it now includes dedicated cycle lanes.

Some of the main concerns raised include the noise levels which will exceed legal limits of 68DB in places. The entire 8 foot high acoustic fence will be moved within meters of housing blocking out natural light and over 60 London Plain trees will be felled which have over 20 years of growth.

Essex County Council also propose removing a crossing at the southern end of the Northern Approach Road.

All of these issues have been highlighted as being totally unacceptable.

To comment or views the plans please visit https://www.colchester.gov.uk/planning-app-details/?id=b61d4bf2-54f0-eb11-bacb-000d3ade7c07#ValidationSummaryEntityFormView

Turner Rise Mcdonalds

The Turner Rise Mcdonalds planning application was recently approved by the Planning Committee at Colchester Council.

We spoke against the plan on various grounds including transport and the
impact it would have on the area at peak times. Unfortunately Tory controlled
Essex County Council signed off the traffic assessment submitted with the
application which included traffic modelling for a Retail Park in Croydon!

Dunelm Mill also objected at the last minute citing the Retail Park in Croydon
where they also have a store was smaller than Turner Rise and the Mcdonalds
store they were comparing it too was also smaller!

The store will be built and open in 2022.

Now the store is approved we need to ensure the impact on the area including extra litter is minimised.

Election results in Mile End & Highwoods – a big thank you!

A big thank you Mile End!

The election was held on May 6th and both Martin Goss and David King were successful in their election results.

Mile End for the Colchester Borough Seat was as follows:

Martin Goss (Lib Dem) 1974 (65.5%)
CON 583 (19.3%)
LABOUR 328 (10.8%)
GREEN 139 (4.6%)

Mile End and Highwoods County Council seat was as follows:

David King (Lib Dem) 2221 (39.9%)
CON 1856 (33.3%)
LABOUR 946 (17.0%)
GREEN 387 ( 7.0%)
REFORM UK 162 ( 2.9%)

Thank you to everyone with a heartfelt thanks from Martin and David who voted to elect us to carry on the great work in Mile End and Highwoods along with Cllr Phil Coleman.

A huge thanks also to Anne Turrell who retired from being County Councillor with nearly 20 years service!

She will still be helping the team in the background.

Mcdonalds planning application at Turner Rise

Some of you may already be aware that McDonalds have put in a planning
application for a new restaurant building at the Turner Rise Retail Park.
The new building will be next to Go Outdoors and next to Pizza hut.

The car park is 390 spaces and only 4 additional spaces will be added. There
will also be changes to the rear access road to the park to allow for a set
of drive through lanes to be created. The application has received a high level
of objections from residents with the most major concern being extra traffic
in an already highly congested area at peak times.

Martin Goss has “called in” the application so it must go through the highest
level of possible planning scrutiny and the ultimate decision will fall to the planning committee.

We have also made sure Essex County Council are aware of concerns
regarding this application as well as all Mile End Councillors objecting to it.

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

Our litter heroes

During lockdown and more recently there has been issues over the increase in litter being dropped around the ward. Dropping litter is an offence and can incur a Fixed Penalty Notice of £100. We have requested fines are increased to £150.

Our thanks to our Neighbourhoods team and all those residents who have undertaken litter picks or picked up litter on their walks.

Also thanks to our existing and new Litter Warriors who have volunteered to do regular litter picks. If you or your family would like to become Litter Warriors please let one of us know and we will provide you with the equipment.

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.