I am a member of the following committees, groups
etc:<>
- Witham Local Committee
- Planning Committee
- Clean and Green Programme Board
- Group Leaders
- I also attend Cabinet meetings by invitation (non-voting)
Involvement with organisations in Braintree District and
elsewhere
- Chairman of Rivenhall Parish
Council
- BDC representative to the Rivenhall Playing Fields
Association
- BDC representative to the Witham Traffic Management Liaison
Panel
- Member of Witham and Countryside Society
- Community Governor at Rivenhall Primary School
- Member of the British Astronomical Association and its CfDS
group
- Member of North Essex Astronomical Society
- Member of CPREssex
- Member of Greenpeace
- Supporter of Stop Stansted Expansion
- UCL Alumni
- Chair of Witham and Braintree Green Party and Essex Green
Party
www.witham-braintree.greenparty.org.uk
- Eastern Region Green Party Press Officer
- Eastern Region Green Party spokesperson on energy, transport and
climate change
www.eastern.greenparty.org.uk
- Green Party of England and Wales national spokesperson on Science
and Technology
www.greenparty.org.uk
Civic Year 2008/09 and annual report to residents in
Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall.
Following the re-election of myself and Cllr. Phil Hughes in May
2007, the last year has been both very active and very challenging
on Braintree District Council.
The most dominant issue has been the future of waste management.
We have continued to press for ambitious recycling and composting
targets (70% within a decade), improvements to the collection
systems and that waste should not be incinerated. We opposed
the planned ending of winter green/kitchen waste collections, which
now appears to have been reinstated for 2009/10. We hope that
now there will be all-year round collections.
Recycling and composting continues to improve with the excellent
support of most residents. An additional welcome feature has been a
decline in the total amount of waste collected, which appears to
now be a trend as it has occured over several years across
Essex as a whole.
We have continued to support residents, shops, local groups and
schools in the development of the BDC and other recycling
systems through assisting with information, recycling bags, getting
in touch with officers, etc.
We have strongly opposed the Essex Waste Strategy and PFI bid
which aims to create 1 or 2 very large centralised waste sites and
the incineration of around 40% to 50% of all household waste in
Essex. This includes the possibility that Rivenhall
Airfield, in open countryside, will be such as site. A
second planning application was submitted in 2008 for a regional
waste site and incinerator which attracted overwhelming public
opposition (819 letters to 1). Although Essex County Council tried
to grant consent, they were prevented from doing so and this
application is now to be the subject of a Public Planning Inquiry,
an outcome we worked for with local residents and organisations and
which we very much welcome as an opportunity to set out in detail
why the site is unsuitable and to put forward the more
sustainable options that should be enacted. We welcomed the
all-party unanimous position of BDC in opposing the application and
in calling for a planning inquiry.
We support a district based solution for waste,
concentrating on high levels of recycling, composting and the use
of green technology such as anaerobic digestion. Vacant existing
allocated industrial land, such as on the Witham industrial
estates, could be used for sustainable district scale recycling and
would create local jobs.
We can no longer support BDC's waste policy as the authority
supports the County Waste Strategy of large centralised sites and
incineration. We do not believe that this is in the best interests
of residents or the protection of the environment.
Traffic and roads remains a high profile issue. I took part in
the A12 Inquiry and welcome the recommendations, which were largely
the same as I had supported at the Inquiry, concentrating on better
management, safety and local improvements rather than highly
expensive and environmentally damaging wholescale widening.
Locally, we continue to support safety
improvements, specifically the need to improve the junctions
at Rivenhall End, Witham and Hatfield Peverel and also
to remove HGV through traffic from Oak Road. We welcome
the start on the A12 safety barrier for residents and the
cycleway/pathway between Witham and Kelvedon. The Highways Agency
agreed to this after requests and we wish to now see the work
completed all the way to Witham.
The A120 remains a difficult issue with no clear solution in
sight. We remain supportive of measures to get through traffic out
of Bradwell and separated from the Galleys Corner roundabout.
Safety should be the top priority. We do not support a new major
off-line road through the countryside. We have continued to discuss
options with local residents and parish councils throughout the
year.
We have received many approaches from residents about planning
issues in the past year. As a result of concerns about developments
taking place without consent, or planning conditions not being
followed, I have asked whether BDC could look to expand its staff
in planning enforcement and to improve the way in which enforcement
issues are reported to councillors and the public.
I have continued to press for ambitious and sustainable
design practices to be required in developments and it has been
very encouraging to see that fellow Members of the Planning
Committee generally share a desire to see green design incorporated
into developments as a matter of course. Green design delivers
development that is more energy efficient - a saving for both the
occupiers and the planet in terms of curbing carbon emissions.
I have also continued to press for reduced light pollution,
which is closely linked to wasteful energy use. Unfortunately BDC
and ECC have not agreed to the full set of proposals we put
forward, including to use switching and sensor technology to
save energy on sites such as empty car parks late at night. We will
continue to press for such energy saving schemes - which
increasingly will save money as energy prices remain
high. I support the Essex County Council trials for switching
off some streetlights at midnight (1am BST) subject to consultation
and safety issues.
The replacement of the Braintree District Local Plan with the
Local Development Framework has been a very challenging process for
this ward, particularly for Rivenhall. A 6 hectare industrial
allocation on farmland north east of Witham, but in
Rivenhall, appears to have been finally removed after a
lot of concern expressed by residents, the parish council and the
BDC Witham Local Committee. But the 300 (minimum) houses
planned for land north east of Forest Road, Witham, but in
Rivenhall, was reinstated in highly controversial fashion at BDC
Council on Monday 22nd June. The development site had been
overwhelmingly rejected by residents in the LDF consultation, as
well as the Parish Council, the Witham Local Committee and even the
LDF Panel itself. If this development went ahead it would roughly
double the population of the parish, consume a large area of highly
attractive countryside, change forever the setting of the Protected
Rectory Lane and increase road traffic and congestion. Other sites
have been put forward and we will continue to argue for these, and
for the removal of the Forest Road site from the LDF.
We support other aspects of the LDF, particularly the emphasis
on affordable housing.
The Community Halls refurbishment programme has seen the
completion of the improvements to Rivenhall Village Hall and
the works to Silver End Village Hall. These works are very
welcome in providing disability access to the buildings and
generally improving them, but we have had concerns about the
lack of liaison with us as local district Members on design issues.
We very much welcome the development of the Children's Centre at
the Silver End Village Hall and support the proposed Youth Club as
a way of engaging young people and preventing some of the
anti-social behaviour issues the village has suffered from.
Unfortunately there was yet again a lack of consistency with
design issues regarding the replacement Silver Street Pavilion
which could have resulted in unnecessarily high energy use. But
these issues were resolved following lengthy discussions
and we now welcome the long-awaited completion of
the Silver Street Pavilion, complete with solar
panels, and the new fencing to the Silver Street
allotments. We have been supportive of allotment provision in the
ward and welcomed the excellent BDC Task and Finish Group
allotment review report.
We have generally welcomed the review of the way in which BDC
projects are managed, to be undertaken by Task and Finish
Groups, which hopefully will improve the delivery of green
design and the co-operation with local Members on future building
projects and community schemes. The Programme Board structure has
also now started at BDC. I am on the Clean and Green Programme
Board and it will be interesting to see if this new way of working
improves delivery on the vital area of sustainability and climate
change.
The Housing Transfer took place in 07/08. We
supported housing to remaining with BDC but clearly now that
the decision has been made we want Greenfields to be a success
and the promises made to tenants and leaseholders to be met. We
have dealt with a few housing issues over the past year - but there
does not appear to be any major problems that we have been made
aware of with the Housing Association.
The review of local Post Offices thankfully spared both
Rivenhall and Silver End from the closure programme. There have
been problems at Rivenhall resulting in a temporary closure
which we very much hope will be resolved soon as several residents
have contacted us to raise their concerns. We did take this up with
the national Post Office managers who were not very helpful with
information.
The start on a new community hospital in Braintree is very
welcome and we continue to support the provision of a non-acute
treatment clinic for Witham.
On-street parking has been raised many times by residents.
We have supported the provision of a number of disabled badge
parking bays in the ward and will continue to do so. Along with the
Silver End South Tenants and Residents Association (SESTRA) we
helped organise a meeting in the summer of 2007 to try and sort out
the parking problems and damage to grass verges in School Road and
Valentines Way, Silver End. Despite many good suggestions from
residents, this issue is little further forward but there is some
hope in the form of a potential scheme for the verges which I
discussed with BDC officers and Greenfields early in 2009. A bid
has been made for a feasibility study in 2009 and any scheme will
be subject to public consultation. We will continue to press for a
local solution that can find agreement between all the
relevant parties.
Safety on the roads and paths is often raised by residents and
at local meetings. I have worked with the parish councils on these
issues and others and a number of schemes are being proposed for
the future, such as gateway signs for Silver End, which the parish
council is proposing. Rivenhall got its first Vehicle
Activated speed warning sign (VAS) in 2008, near the church and a
second one in Rickstones Road is due. The zebra crossing in
Rivenhall was completed in the summer of 2007. I have long
supported this proposal as it improves pedestrian access across the
busy and fast Church Road and originally was the subject of a
petition from parents of children at Rivenhall School. I will
continue to support stronger measures to slow traffic down through
all the villages in ward.
The pavements through Bradwell remain in a poor state in places,
despite several approaches to the Highways Agency, who are the
responsible authority. We will continue to remind them of their
responsibility to make sure that all the paths are safe to
use.
We have continued to support improvements to public transport
and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. I suggested a new
footpath north of Rivenhall towards Silver End, which found
favour with the parish council and is being currently being
processed by the County Council, but due to a change in criteria
appears to have been put back several years which would be very
disappointing. I have continued to report blockages of a number of
footpaths in the ward and lack of directional signs in some places.
I have worked with ECC to secure refurbishment of the historic cast
metal road sign in the centre of Silver End which should be
completed in 2009. I have reported a number of flytips on
footpaths and it has been good to see that generally BDC has been
very helpful in clearing these quickly or finding ways to get areas
cleared even when they don’t necessarily have a duty to do so.
We continue to support improvements to the Braintree Branch line
and Witham station, but note these are now long overdue. We support
the provision of an integrated public transport and
cycleway/walking network linked to the station as a means of giving
people sustainable transport choices and also to help reduce
traffic congestion and air pollution.
These last few years have seen a much improved dialogue with the
Police. The community policing arrangements, linked to the BDC
warden/ranger scheme is working very well and there has been a
noticeable improvement in patrols and reporting back on specific
incidents. Anti-social behaviour and vandalism, particularly in
Silver End, does remain a problem which we believe can be tackled,
and especially though more patrols in the evenings and the Youth
Centre. Speeding remains an issue along the Cressing - Silver End -
Rivenhall road, which the police are aware of. Community Speedwatch
schemes are underway or planned in the villages, which we
support
My allowances and expenses from BDC in the year to April
2009 was £6523.39 from which I paid £96.80 in income tax.
I have tried to walk and cycle to as many meetings as possible,
more particularly parish and other local meetings in the
ward.