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To the Town Council offices (cripes) on Tuesday evening for the bi-monthly meeting of the Wivenhoe Neighbourhood Action Panel, the Essex Police initiative, defined as:

“Each NAP consists of representatives from the local community, residents’ associations, children and young people, voluntary agencies, schools, faith groups, Town and Parish councillors, Colchester Borough Council, Essex County Council and other statutory groups or organisations that are best placed to make a valuable contribution to community problem solving throughout Colchester.”

Oh - and nosey bloggers as well. Many thanks for making me feel most welcome…

Scaling down further for Wivenhoe, and our very own #hyperlocal NAP states:

“We want to tackle crime and quality of life issues that are effecting Wivenhoe and the University of Essex. We not only want to tackle them but we want to reduce them.”

A cursory glance over at the online data released last week via police.uk reveals that downtown Wivenhoe ‘aint exactly a crime hot spot. Ah, but it’s all relative, and also all about reassurances.

Seven incidents of anti-social behaviour, plus the three reports of violent crime in December 2010, are much more than pure, hard online data. These are very real situations that NAP seeks to address to help to make Wivenhoe an even better place in which to live and work.

Violent crime is hard to predict. Parking issues however can be addressed to help achieve a positive outcome.

Um, can’t they…?

As was the case with the previous NAP back in November, a great deal of the debate on Tuesday evening was taken up with parking issues around the town. Put simply, we have too many cars parking within Wivenhoe.

You can’t legislate for car ownership; nor for local authority cuts, which reduces the budget available to address the issue. Which all rather depressingly sums up the majority of agenda items at the NAP: Parking problems, no money, not much we can do.

Bare with me, blog readers - there is something of a warm, happy ending involving Mayor Brian Sinclair…

But first the roll call of cars parking woes:

Rosabelle Avenue has been reported as being a problem area for dangerous parking. Wivenhoe Town Council is currently waiting on a review of the 2011 budget for possible funding.

Moving on…

Parking outside One Stop towards The Cross - Councillor Penny Kraft reported on the solution being pressed by WTC. Essex County Council Highways have agreed to widen the pavement at the Colchester Road end.

Hurrah!

The problem? The small matter of the shortfall of £25k to pay for this. Cripes, you’re thinking - that’s a lot of wonga for a small stretch of road. Indeed it is. A more conservative £4k is the figure for the physical pavement improvements; £21k is the amount needed to pay off the various utility and telco companies who would be caught up in the crossfire.

NAP Chair Eugene Kraft has approached One Stop about some friendly sponsorship to help carry out the work, and ultimately improve the parking outside the business. Times are tough for traders as well as local councils. Sadly the scheme is now on hold.

Something slightly more positive however is the report of disruptive parking outside Millfields School. Councillor Kraft observed:

“You need a physical presence to address this. Whenever someone from the school stands outside during the school run, parents tend to park properly. Without this however and the problem returns. People don’t park cars - they abandon them. This is a great inconvenience to local residents.”

In response, the Deputy Head of Millfields [apologies, didn't note your name...] kindly attended the meeting to update on the issue:

“Our last formal complaint from a resident was back in May 2010. If we aren’t aware of the issues, then we can’t act upon them. We have extended parking in the school so that there are more spaces. Teachers arriving early morning are parking flush to the edge of the space. We now have fewer employees parking outside the school.”

The Chair observed that the Millfields parking problem is now “not as bad as it once was.” The NAP agreed to remove the item from future agendas, pending any further complaints.

Which was all very considerate, which also leads rather nicely into, ah… the Considerate Parking Scheme.

This is a WTC initiative, which aims to promote a better understanding of the parking needs around the town, in the absence of any law of the land to ease the flow of traffic. Wivenhoe tends to be a terribly considerate town anyway. If such a scheme were to work, one would hope that it would work in Wivenhoe.

The idea is simple: encourage and promote a more considerate, shared use of car parking space around the town, and explain the positive outcomes for the community. Councillor Kraft explained how the scheme has been discussed at WTC, along with input from our local police team.

“We looked at the Brightlingsea model and concluded that the Brightlingsea problem is not the same as ours. WTC decided not to pursue the Considerate Parking Scheme. The police aren’t keen, and we haven’t got the backing from Colchester Borough Council.

Commuters cause the problems in Wivenhoe - in Brightlingsea it is residents. We tried to speak with inconsiderate parkers down at West Quay and we didn’t even know who we are dealing with.”

Wivenhoe Society Chair Tom Roberts was not alone in expressing his disappointment that this scheme has now been shelved:

“I had hoped that the Considerate Parking Scheme would address the problem of cars parking with two wheels on the road.”

[um... Valley Road.]

The official WTC response is that this can’t be done without police support.

Sgt Lou Middleton added:

“It is not an offence for cars to park on the public pavement, as long as they are not obstructing pedestrians. If it was HGV’s, then we could act.”

A discussion then followed about *ahem* Park Road in particular, and how double parking takes place on both sides of the pavement. It was suggested that putting double yellow lines down one side of the road would ease the problem, but… there isn’t a budget for this.

A work-around of sorts was concluded, which kept in with the very considerate nature of Wivenhoe: the NAP will work alongside the local police to leaflet cars, which are parked inconsiderately.

Different agenda point, same problem: dangerous parking along Elmstead Road. The Chair noted:

“Nothing can be done. The road is too narrow and there are no pavements.”

And then just when you wait for yet another dangerous parking conundrum, along comes… Queens Road.

Oh Lordy.

The problem, if indeed there is one with Queens Road, is not so much dangerous parking but the inverse and the continued closure of the stretch. An update was kindly provided by a QRRA member, outlining the Association’s view on the fire at the Business Centre last year.

This is all old ground, and nothing new was discussed that we didn’t already know. Highways are not prepared to change their position on the closure, and so the item was ticked off the NAP agenda.

And relax.

Sgt Littleton then explained a little more about the Essex Police Emerging Communities initiative:

“This is a government led scheme to identify new groups moving into communities. We are keen to identify these groups so that we can give them the same standard of support as we do other members of the community.”

A bit of head scratching around the Town Council table, and apart from an anti-Mubarak poster that has been spotted in solitary along Park Road, Wivenhoe doesn’t seem to be a town that is that transient right now.

But anyway - back to parking - or back to the pedestrian flow around parked cars to be more precise.

The much-mooted zebra crossing by the Co-op now seems like a lost cause. With much personal frustration, Mayor Sinclair explained the saga that has frustrated WTC for some time:

“We can’t have a pedestrian crossing close to a road junction, therefore the only location would be above from the Co-op. This would wipe out resident parking space, as well as creating extra cost in having to move the bus stop.

Delays happened, and we simply ran out of time with the project in relation to the budget. WTC is collectively very angry over this. The money has been put aside, and we want to make sure that we have still got access to this.”

Tom Roberts raised the valid point of tapping into some Section 106 funding as part of the planning process for Cedrics Bus Garage. The current planning application has now been withdrawn, with WTC waiting for an expected re-submitted approach.

AOB raised up the appropriate issue for a NAP panel of the closure of Wivenhoe Police Station. As has already been documented, Sgt Middleton, PC Bond and PSCO Neville are moving out to the Fire Station. Sgt Middleton confirmed that this would be happening later in the month. The ICT infrastructure is currently being kitted out.

The possible problem, as pointed out by Councillor Kraft, is that there will be no public access to the new premises. This is simply a physical imposition of the building.

Sgt Middleton commented that he doesn’t view this as a problem, as the old police station gets very few doorknockers anyway. A police surgery at the library was confirmed, as was the very visible police van drop in sessions that you can currently see around the town.

A final point was confirmation that the police houses will be sold…

And then as promised, here comes the lovely *ahhh* moment that one just wasn’t expecting to conclude a Wivenhoe NAP meeting.

Mayor Sinclair reported back on a couple of incidents involving vocal students, tired and emotional, late in the evening after taking part in the legendary Wivenhoe Run. Not wanting to condone the actions (The Flag down to The Station, and then back again, mid-week as an Essex undergraduate? Not me, Oh no, Sireee…) but there is something of a lovely ending.

Personal apologies have been made to locals who were disturbed by the behaviour, as well as apologies to our local pubs. My Mayor thought that this was very humble, and even told the young boozers this as well as encouraging them to return to our town.

Perhaps it’s a good idea to get the bus back to campus next time, eh, guys ‘n girls?

Oh - and with perfect comic timing, and just as the meeting was concluded, in walked the good Councillor Steve Ford.

The poor chap probably couldn’t find anywhere to park.

Whoops.