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MINUTES OF THE WIVENHOE COMMUNITY SAFETY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH GROUP 28th January 2010 Present Nick Rowlands(Chair), Linda Rutledge (Secretary), Peter Carrington, Austin Baines, Karl Douzier, Cllr Stephen Ford, David Hawkins, Keith Hunt, Pauline Hunt, Terry O’Brien, Elke Ray, Dennis Searle, 1 Apologies Ken Rogers, PC Mick Bond, Dennis Bullard, PCSO Louise Neville, Peter Overton, Cllr Julie Young 2 There were no matters arising from the previous minutes. 3 Chair’s Report On behalf of Ken Rogers, Nick Rowlands reported there have been no burglaries in Wivenhoe since the last meeting. The playground at Lower Lodge Farm, which was vandalised a year ago, now has sturdy metal railings around it which should last a long time and make it safer for those who use it. At the October 2009 meeting Julie Young reported that the traffic activated speed limit sign on Rectory Road was to be erected in December. Due to ‘technical problems’ with the installation the new completion date is now March 2010. Nick noted it was good to see a lot more evidence of the police around Wivenhoe; both the foot patrols by Louise Neville and more police vehicles than previously. 4 Correspondence At Ken’s request Linda has created a template for headed paper for the group. Ken has the permission of the Council to use an image of the Wivenhoe shield and the neighbourhood watch logo is available for all groups to use. The cost of printing will be investigated although this may be prohibitively expensive. An alternative is to just use the heading on top copies using a home printer. Peter Carrington very kindly offered the group £75 towards the cost of printing/ink cartridges. Linda reported how, at Ken’s request, she had contacted 12 schools with a view to creating an emergency contact list. This would only be used if there was an incident involving the safety of young people (e.g. a car stopping to offer youngsters a lift). So far only five schools have responded; Linda will chase up the other seven. Linda will update parts of the CSNW entry on the Wivenhoe Encyclopaedia Web site. Linda will create a dedicated e-mail address to be used by the secretary of the group: secretary.wivenhoe.csnw@sky.com 5 Reports from members and the public The last couple of months have been relatively quiet and most people had very little to report. Dennis Searle expressed concern around the difficulties and danger created by cars parked along Broome Grove around the school. Karl Douzier asked if representations could be made to the Council for some solution to this problem as the current state of affairs would make it impossible for a fire engine or ambulance to get through at certain times of the day. Cllr Julie Young will be approached to do this. It was agreed the lack of gritting on the side roads and pavements had made getting around during the recent icy conditions at times very hazardous. There was a good community spirit with people helping push cars etc. although Austin Baines was dismayed at the number of people helping themselves to grit from the grit bins. Elke Ray mentioned children playing snowballs across the road at The Cross which sometimes hit her windows – although a nuisance, this was more high-jinks than malicious. 6 Police Report Unfortunately neither of the Wivenhoe police officers were able to attend the meeting but Louise Neville sent a report to Nick via e-mail: It has been a fairly quiet period although there had been an assault on two males on the corner of Rosabelle Ave and Vanessa Drive, there are no known suspects. There has been damage and nuisance behaviour at Broomgrove School, Chaney Road and the Montessori in the pavilion on King George playing fields. If anyone sees anything suspicious please call 999. Following a discussion about rowdy groups of people Mrs Hunt suggested calling the Noise Patrol at Colchester Borough Council who are on duty Friday and Saturday nights. This might be an alternative to calling the police. 7 Guest Speaker Mr Peter Carrington from the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) started on a very reassuring note by saying that Colchester (including Wivenhoe) is in fact one of the safest towns in Essex. There is a slight spike at the moment regarding burglaries and Peter urged everyone to pass on the message that house and car security is vital – not leaving items on display but also to turn off the Bluetooth of anything in the car glove compartment (e.g. sat. nav. & mobile phones) as this makes these items visible to other Bluetooth users. Peter’s role as Co-ordinator of the CDRP is varied and wide reaching. He summarised his departments’ structure, its responsibilities and gave examples of projects at work around the Colchester area. Please see the attached document for a detailed summary of his excellent presentation. Nick Rowlands thanked Peter for an extremely interesting talk and said we were very lucky to have someone so dynamic doing this work in Colchester and is very heartening to know all this is going on. 8 The state of the roads in Wivenhoe Nick Rowland raised the issue of the poor state of repair of many of the roads in Wivenhoe which has been exacerbated by the recent icy conditions. Pot holes will cause damage to cars and are a danger to cyclists. Attempts to report them don’t seem to achieve anything. Austin Baines said there is no longer a single individual responsible for the repairs and Wivenhoe has suffered from poor investment and poor quality of refurbishment going back to the 1960’s. People need to continue making complaints. Stephen Ford reported to the ECC the pot hole outside the Co-op ten days ago but nothing has happened to date. Over the next few months Stephen is going to walk his ward to record the potholes. Although ECC will only take action on holes more than 2” deep he will be documenting all of them. Karl Douzier raised the issue of the road surface along Bobbits Way where, after the recent snow, the asphalt surface has come completely off exposing the concrete underneath. It would seem the original surface was not ‘fit for purpose’; surely whoever laid the road surface should guarantee it for a minimum number of years. 9 Future meetings The next meeting will be on Thursday 25th February. Any guest speaker will be confirmed nearer the time. 10 Any other business No other issues were raised. |