Happy anniversary

Over the weekend St John’s Church in Epping celebrated the 100th anniversary of the construction of its tower, which is still Epping’s most important landmark: visible from the M25 and for miles around. I thoroughly enjoyed the celebratory concert, featuring the Epping Church Choirs Association, St John’s Church Choir and other musicians on Friday evening.

We are fortunate that those who commissioned the church and its tower were far-sighted enough to appoint an architect as good as G F Bodley, who is considered to have made a major contribution to church architecture.

The church is now raising funds to build a new extension, at the west end of the church where St John’s House is now. (Apparently this was going to be the original location of the tower until someone pointed out that the clock would be more visible if it could be seen from the High Steet.)

I don’t think anyone will miss St John’s House when it is pulled down – it is an undistinguished building – but whatever takes its place will have to be a very special design if it is to complement the existing church and serve the congregation and community as well as Bodley’s design has done for the past 100 years. From what I hear the architect is a big admirer of Bodley and up for the challenge.

Allnutts Post Office: re-opening campaign succeeds!

If some of the worst news this week was contained in Alastair Darling’s statement of doom, the best news for me was the news that Allnutts Post Office is to re-open. On Tuesday my fellow Liberal Democrat councillor Janet Whitehouse rang to tell me that she had just come out of a meeting with Shanhaz Javid from Allnutts Stores and the county council. At the end of the meeting a contract had been signed to re-open the post office in about 20 weeks time!

Cllr Janet Whitehouse, Shanhaz Javid and local residents show off the petition signatures calling for the re-opening of Allnutts Post Office

It was a tremendous blow for local people when the post office shut in February 2008 as part of the Labour government’s Post Office closure plan. Hopes were raised when Essex County Council announced, in a blaze of publicity, plans to re-open some of the offices. My fellow ward councillor Janet Whitehouse received positive indications from county council officers. But so far only three post offices in Essex have actually started serving customers again. So when county council officials visited Allnutts Stores in February this year to say that the post office would remain shut it was disappointing, but not an enormous surprise .

Thankfully neither Shanhaz, who provides such an excellent service to her customers, nor Janet gave up. Janet pressed the county council for a meeting. She and Shanhaz travelled to County Hall in Chelmsford to put their case. The county council thought again and agreed to continue discussions. Local people expressed their support for the re-opening and described the problems they had experienced without a local post office. More meetings were held. The county council required Shanhaz to make changes such as a new shop front and changes to the internal layout of the store. At last, thanks to Shanhaz, Janet and the county council all working together, a deal was done and a contract signed.

As Janet said in a letter to local residents who supported her petition:

I am delighted that by working together we have achieved this fantastic outcome. It is now up to all of us to support Shanhaz and Allnutts Stores and to use the Post Office regularly when it re-opens in Autumn.

In Remembrance

Members of 42 Commando and the Royal British Legion at Epping War Memorial

I was one of many people who attended the rededication of Epping War Memorial and Civic Service on Sunday afternoon. The service at the War Memorial was as moving as it is each Remembrance Sunday, especially when the traffic stops and members of the congregation stands in silence with their thoughts until the Last Post sounds.

The event was made particularly meaningful by the presence of the family of Georgie Sparks, who died fighting with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan, and some of his fellow marines from 42 Commando who have only just returned from Afghanistan.

Icelandic investment will lead to losses

I’m glad to see that after some grim predictions about the likelihood of recovering the £2½ million that Epping Forest District Council invested with the Icelandic-owned Heritable Bank, things now look slightly more positive. The council’s Director of Financial Services gave us an update on the situation at last night’s Cabinet meeting. He now expects that 70-80 per cent of the money will be returned. The FT takes a similar view.

Of course this will still mean a loss of up to £750,000, which is a very substantial amount and would go a long way towards funding some of the capital projects the council is involved in.

Unfortunately that isn’t all local taxpayers will lose. I asked whether the council would get back the interest due on its investment. The answer revealed that the council will only recover interest from the period between when it was invested until the date the bank went into administration in October. We’ll lose all the interest that would have been received from then until whenever  the money is finally returned. I can’t remember at what rate the money was invested, but any percentage of £2½ million is a substantial sum.

Railing repairs – at last!

Lib Dem campaigner Lorraine Collier highlights the county council’s failiure to repair Epping High Street’s broken railingsThis picture was taken in March 2007 – and the railings in Epping High Street were well overdue for repair then! Since then I’ve often contacted the county council about their failure to repair or replace them. At different times the reasons for delay have included the need to place a special order, the difficulty of sourcing matching stock, the need to obtain funding from Chelmsford (where the county council is based) and staff shortages.

So I was pleased today to receive an email confirming that repair works are due to start in two week’s time.  I won’t quite believe it until I see workers are on site (delays caused by more snow anyone?) but let’s hope by the end of the month residents no longer have to put up with the red plastic ‘temporary’ barriers spoiling what is mostly a very attractive street.

Snow hits rubbish and recycling collections

Unsurprisingly, the recent poor weather has hit local refuse collections. (After all almost every other service seems to have been affected.) One of the more unexpected consequences of the freezing temperatures has apparently been that blue boxes containing glass recycling have frozen to the pavement.

The clear sack collections should have gone back to normal today (Thursday) but the green waste collection service has been suspended until Monday 16 February. I suppose there can’t be much gardening going on at the moment anyway.

The council has issued the following revised timetable for wheelie bin collections:

  • The Monday 2 February collection is rescheduled to Friday 6 February 2009
  • The Tuesday 3 February collection is rescheduled to Saturday 7 February 2009
  • The Wednesday 4 February collection is rescheduled to Monday 9 February 2009
  • The Thursday 5 February collection is rescheduled to Tuesday 10 February 2009
  • The Friday 6 February collection is rescheduled to Wednesday 11 February 2009

Unless things change again when the snow predicted for Friday arrives.

Do we want advertising hoardings on our roundabouts?

The district council has been casting about for ways of generating cash. As a result it has submitted a planning application (to itself!) requesting permission to erect advertising hoardings at 15 locations on roundabouts across the district.

I will be interested to see how this is received. When the same idea was put forward several years ago it was withdrawn quite swiftly because various people were unhappy at the prospect of advertising and further ‘clutter’ in Epping Forest.This has not deterred the Conservatives from including the Wake Arms and Robin Hood roundabouts in the current application, as well as other roundabouts in less sensitive locations. As far as I can see from the information on the district council website, the City of London (which is responsible for Epping Forest) hasn’t been asked for its views.

The council hopes to erect up to three hoardings per roundabout (5 feet by about 2½ feet) mounted on poles. You can find out more using the council’s new online planning service: the application number is EPF/1814/2008.

On the doorstep

Epping Forest’s Liberal Democrat councillors met this morning to discuss the agenda for the council meeting on Tuesday week and other forthcoming issues. As various members reported back on the work they were doing and the issues they were pursuing I was struck by how much work goes on behind the scenes that must be totally invisible to most residents.

Sometimes this is because the work concerns individuals and it isn’t appropriate to make the details public. Sometimes it is long term work that may or may not come to fruition. At other times it is simply too obscure or complex to be of wide interest. But often we simply don’t think to tell people, although we try to make sure the most important bits of news are covered by our Focus newsletters and at www.eflibdems.org.uk. Part of the reason for starting this mini-blog is to try and report back more frequently about the things which I and my Lib Dem colleagues are doing.

This afternoon Janet Whitehouse and I knocked on doors in Epping and Coopersale to thank people for supporting us in the elections in May and discuss local issues. A few people were surprised to find us on their doorsteps outside of election time but we think it is important to keep in touch all year round. As usual we both picked up several issues we need to pursue, including some speeding traffic issues to raise with Essex County Council. As a bonus four people volunteered to help deliver our Focus newsletters.

If you can help deliver Focus in your road (ideally every two to three months) please drop me a line at jon.whitehouse@eflibdems.org.uk.

Bell Common Tunnel roadworks underway

I popped in yesterday to the Highways Agency’s exhibition about major roadworks about to start at Bell Common tunnel. Drivers who travelled through the Holmesdale Tunnel near Enfield a couple of years ago will be familiar with the sort of work that is planned: upgrading the ventilation system and replacing electrics and emergency equipment.

Unlike at Holmesdale, the Agency has committed to keeping three lanes of traffic open in each direction during the day. As an average of 120,000 drivers travel through the tunnel every 24 hours this is pretty important if massive delays are to be avoided. The estimated completion date is March 2011 and the agency reckons that delays at peak times should be no more than 15 minutes. We will see. As a local councillor the main concerns I had were about the amount of traffic which might be tempted to divert from the M25 onto local roads if the delays are lengthy, the visual impact of the new ventilation units when the scheme is complete and the effect on local residents (noise, air pollution etc.) during construction. The answers were broadly re-assuring – an environmental assessment has been carried out, the contractors have liaised with Epping Forest District Council’s environmental health officers and there will be new planting when the works are complete – but I’ll be checking a couple of things with council officers.

You can find more information at the Highways Agency project page here. I’ve also found a presentation [PDF] explaining details of the work.  Costain (the contractor) has set up a 24-hour community helpline for anyone with queries or concern:

 08456 037985

bctinfo@costain.com

New bus shelters for Epping High Street

I’m looking forward to seeing new bus shelters on Epping High Street. My town council colleague, Rob Macrae, has been pressing this issue as the current shelters outside St John’s Church and on the other side of the road are well past their sell-by date.

I’m told the new shelters will be much more in keeping with Epping. Hopefully installation will be some time during Autumn.