Tag Archives: Essex County Council

Reporting crime

Uncategorised, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mile End and more widely Colchester is an extremely safe place but as with any community or City we always do need to be vigilant and report anything which we think is out of the ordinary.

Too many times crimes or suspicious activities remain unreported and instead people put them on Facebook or social media. This might be good to alert local neighbours but it does nothing to actually report the crime.

An example in Colchester being when over 28 sheds were broken into one evening and although it made it to social media, the Police only had one reported incident so didn’t treat it as a serious break in!

Please do report all non-emergency crimes on 101 or in an emergency 999. You can also report crimes online at the Essex Police website.

The more crime is reported, the better it is to reflect true statistics and ensure police effort is concentrated in those areas that need it! If you don’t report a crime, this could be the difference between the data showing an issue or not!

Crumbling roads

Uncategorised, , , , , , , , , ,

The County Council has not spent enough money in recent years and admit that our highways are ‘in managed decline’.

David has resisted this. Raising issues in public, in meetings of the County Council. Lobbying for work. Escalating issues and raising a budget amendment to seek extra money for spending on roads and paths.

The good news – his campaign has helped. With extra government and County Council cash for catch-up work. The County Council has an extra £17.4m, but across all of Essex, however we should see some real improvements by end of this summer.

David will keep pressing for better.

Your Mile End survey responses

Uncategorised, , , , , , , , , ,

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!

Northern Approach Road bus lane

Development, , , , , , , , , ,

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

Development, , , , , , , , ,

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!

Uncategorised, , , , , , , , , ,

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.

All change at North Station

Highways, , , , , , , , ,

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.

Mile End Secondary Schools update!

Uncategorised, , , , , , , , , , ,

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

Highways, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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!

Chesterwell planning application amendment affecting Mile End Road

Highways, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We want to ensure you are aware of a modification request for the planning conditions set on the original Mersea Homes planning application for the Chesterwell development.

Bartholomew Court which is currently a dead end was always designed to be a bus access only route for the Chesterwell development which would access onto Mile End Road. Mersea Homes have submitted a change to this so the route can also be used by traffic from up to 160 houses on the southern end of the Chesterwell development.

The bus route would still use this access point and it also means access to the 160 houses would also be from this access point too.

We have said to Mersea Homes they must install electronic rising bollards for the bus access point so that it cannot be accessed by the majority of the Chesterwell development traffic should this change be approved.

It would be advisable to add your comments to this requested change and ensure your views are submitted. Please visit www.colchester.gov.uk/planning and search for application number 183077.

If we can be of any further help please do not hesitate to contact any member of the team or call 07912 396335.