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MINUTES OF THE WIVENHOE
COMMUNITY SAFETY
AND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH GROUP
25th March 2010
Present: Margaret & Richard Barrowman, Dennis
Bullard, Margaret Currell, Karl Douzier, James Eborn, Heather Edwards, Cllr
Steve Ford, David Hawkins, Helen Johnson, Rev’d Erwin Lammens, D. Matthias,
Terry O’Brien, Elke Ray, Nick Rowlands (Vice-Chair, chairing the meeting in
Ken's absence), Linda Rutledge (secretary), Dennis Searle, Peter Terry
(Chair of Governors Broomgrove Junior School), Paula Wiltshire (Head of
Broomgrove Infants School)
1 Apologies: Austin Baines, PC Mick Bond , Mr & Mrs Hatch, Cllr Jon
Manning, PCSO Louise Neville , Ken Rogers, Cllr Julie Young
2 Matters arising from previous meeting
Nick Rowlands reported that the donation of £75 from Peter Carrington at the
Colchester Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership has arrived and been
banked. Linda Rutledge has sent a letter of thanks. Work has started on
installing the traffic activated device on Rectory Hill. Nick has not been
able to obtain any leaflets regarding responsible dog ownership. Customer
Services at Colchester Borough Council have on two occasions promised to get
back to Nick, but nothing has happened to date. Steve Ford offered to follow
this up.
The minutes of 25.2.10 were agreed as correct.
3 Discussion with Peter Terry, Chair of Governors of Broomgrove Junior
School and Paula Wiltshire, Head of Broomgrove Infants School.
Nick Rowlands thanked both Peter Terry and Paula Wiltshire for coming to the
meeting. He summarised the concerns expressed at previous meetings, namely
the irresponsible parking by parents and anti-social behaviour by youngsters
in the area – a car vandalised on Chaney Road and throwing missiles (broken
asphalt) from the footpath into the back of houses along Chaney Road causing
broken windows. The perpetrators climbing over the fence that runs along the
footpath and into the Infant school grounds. A couple of weeks ago more
lumps of asphalt were thrown at two houses further along the footpath. The
car vandalism was about October 2009 and the anti-social behaviour continued
for the school Autumn term, cumulating in the vandalism of the school
swimming pool over the New Year period, although appears to have started
along the footpath again.
Footpath ASB
Paula Wiltshire confirmed there has recently been quite a lot of police
presence along the path and the school has erected new fences. She has had
meetings and discussions with Cllr David Purdey and Cllr Julie Young
regarding lighting along the path. Funding is the main stumbling block.
The schools have raised the issue with their pupils during assemblies and
circle time to find out if anyone knew anything about the incidents, without
any success. Peter Terry said that hopefully the regular police patrols will
act as a deterrent and the governors at the Junior school support the idea
of lighting.
Nick Rowlands will contact Julie Young, on behalf of the CSNW group,
supporting the call for lighting along the path. Heather suggested another
deterrent maybe the placing of signs saying the area is monitored by CCTV.
Steve Ford thought there would have to be consultations before any possible
lighting could be erected to consider the environmental/light pollution
issues for the area. Peter Terry asked if the group had any ideas for
possible funding sources. Terry O’Brien suggested approaching Peter
Carrington from the Colchester Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership. Steve
Ford supported that idea and also suggested approaching NAP. Linda Rutledge
will pass on contact details to Paula Wiltshire. Paula Wiltshire asked if
the Colne school had been informed regarding these concerns and Nick
Rowlands agreed to make contact.
Parking
Dennis Searle asked if there were now fewer parking areas at the school
leading to the increased number of cars parked on Broome Grove. Paula
Wiltshire confirmed that, while the builders are on site, there are fewer
parking spaces for staff; but other areas are being utilised as far as
possible including those where parking is not normally permitted. The
builders should be finished by Easter and the staff parking places
re-instated. It was acknowledged that problem parking outside schools is a
nationwide dilemma and not only here in Wivenhoe. Both Infant and Junior
schools regularly remind parents about considerate parking through their
news letters. When PCSO Louise Neville patrols outside school the problem
does stop for a week or two. Peter Terry said he has spent several
afternoons observing the conditions outside the schools and acknowledges it
can be very chaotic. He also stated that there are increasing numbers of
staff employed by the schools, many of whom do not live locally. The schools
were never originally designed to accommodate the present number of staff
but they do recognise it is a problem. Again, creating staff parking areas
is constrained by financial considerations.
Paula Wiltshire said they had tried a ‘walking bus’ which worked well for a
short period of time. The problem was it was the same few parents who had an
enormous crocodile of other people’s children to supervise. They have tried
to encourage walking, bikes, scooters etc and built a big bike shelter.
There are also dangers to be considered when encouraging very young children
to cycle to school along a very congested road. The Junior school pupils are
offered the cycling proficiency test but Terry O’Brien said he frequently
sees youngsters on bikes, whose parents are some distance behind, cycle
along the middle of Cappillar Close which is an accident waiting to happen.
Karl Douzier suggested a 10mph zone around the school or to make the road
one-way at certain times of day.
4 Chairman’s Report, including report from the police
Ken Rogers e-mailed Nick Rowlands to report the theft of a locked bicycle at
the Quay. He has spoken to residents in the area although no useful
information was obtained. Nick has contacted Cllr Jon Manning who is keen to
help regarding the dog fouling. Julie Young has been working hard on the
parking issues.
The police e-mailed to say there has been very little crime in the area.
Over the last month the crimes reported are one theft of car index plates,
two thefts from boats, two thefts from motor vehicles and two incidents of
criminal damage. Nick Rowlands also added there was an incident about a
month back at the end of Rosabelle Avenue with youngsters congregating and
causing a nuisance. PCSO Louise Neville has been doing some extra patrols.
There was a traffic offence at the Valley Road/Park Road junction last week
when one car drove away after an accident. The investigation into the
assault on Vine Drive is still ongoing. Louise Neville also asked for
everyone to be reminded that that the best way to prevent things being
stolen is to remove expensive items (when possible) from vehicles, boats
etc. If it's on view then it is too tempting for a thief.
5 Secretary’s report
Linda Rutledge has written to Peter Carrington to thank him and acknowledge
safe receipt of the £75. She has taken photocopies of an article ‘The
Horrendous Offence of Rape’ written by Ken Rogers and published in the
magazine ‘Protecting Citizens Worldwide’. These copies were handed out to
all present.
6 Reports from members and the public
Many present had nothing to report, which is very good.
Terry O’Brien had earlier raised the issue of young children on bikes in the
road around Cappillar Close.
Karl Douzier picked up on the issue of dog fouling. At the river cleanup
last Sunday he was dismayed at the number of plastic bags collected
containing dog poo – at least 100 such bags! Heather Edwards said this
highlights the need for a bin half way along the footpath. Steve Ford said
it is important to keep up the gentle pressure regarding dog mess. Things
are a lot better now than 15 years ago, education combined with legal
processes have improved things. He suggested writing letters to the local
papers.
Steve Ford said that just before coming out for this meeting he had a caller
claiming to be from Zenith, although they displayed no identification badge.
They were very pushy and persistent and difficult to turn away. Karl Douzier
suggested reporting to Trading Standards.
Dave Matthias has had more aggregate thrown into garden last night causing a
chip in his back door glass.
Margaret & Richard Barrowman described some of the problems the residents
are experiencing around the new houses by the river. Garden furniture and
plant pots are being moved - at times into dry dock or the river. The
children, as young as 10 or 11, are very disrespectful (mooning) when
confronted. A woman challenged about dog fouling was very abusive and
coincidently the next day a potted palm was missing. This has been reported
to Louise Neville. There is also a lot of dog fouling along the footpaths by
the barrier and sailing club. Heather Edwards suggested inviting the dog
warden to a future meeting.
Nick Rowlands extended a warm welcome to Rev’d Erwin Lammens and thanked him
for coming to the meeting. Erwin said that he is obviously still getting to
know Wivenhoe and its people and was pleased to attend.
7 Future Meetings
There will be no meeting in April, so the next meeting will be Thursday 27th
May.
8 Any other business
Karl Douzier is a trustee at the Wivenhoe Housing Trust and they would like
to donate £50 to the group. This has to be spent on a single project. It was
agreed everyone would give this some thought and ideas will be discussed at
the next meeting.
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