Tag Archives: North Station

Reporting crime

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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!

Northern Approach Road bus lane

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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

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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.

Mcdonalds planning application at Turner Rise

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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

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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

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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

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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.”

10 screen cinema coming to Mile End!

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Developers Turnstone Estates have revised their plans for the new leisure development on the land next to the football stadium.

Turnstone will submit their new proposals to the council planning department soon.

They will look to start building later this year,although given the current climate that may be delayed.

The new plans include a 10 screen cinema, 3 indoor units for bowling, putting and climbing, 7 restaurants including two drive throughs, a hotel, multilevel car parking and landscaped outdoor plaza area.

Mile End Secondary Schools update!

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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.”

New bench for Bergholt Road recreation ground

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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