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To Colchester Town Hall! …on Wednesday evening.

Cripes, Comrades, ‘n all that.

The occasion? Not a late night shopping session at M & S for a pair of oversized Y-fronts (although that was on the agenda for later in the evening) but a meeting of the Colchester Borough Council cabinet.

LibDem Cllr Manning of the Cross ward in Wivenhoe was taking up a side seat in the cabinet room. He was more than just an interested spectator, and wasn’t there to simply tweet away the meeting, having singed up as the first Wivenhoe CBC Cllr to have joined the twitterati.

Instead, the good Cllr was rather concerned about St Osyth - aren’t we all, Comrades?

In particular, it is the non-political issue of the Conservative led Essex County Council deciding to close the re-cycling centre at Britain’s Driest Village.

That’s quite some claim - Britain’s Driest Village, not the suggestion of the non-political decision taken by the Conservative led Essex County Council to close the great pilgrimage to all things plastic and re-cycable.

Anyway, Cllr Manning from this parish put forward the view that Britain’s Driest Village is a far easier destination for his residents to reach than Britain’s Oldest Recorded Town. The drive out to the Clacton coast is also a lot more enjoyable than getting clogged up down Clingoe Hill on the way to Shrub End, the nearest Colchester alternative.

This was a good point and well made. There was even a dry sense of humour in keeping with the St Osyth hyperlocal climate as well:

“Has Colchester Borough Council been consented on this decision to close the facility at St Osyth? Can Shrub End handle the expected increase in demand? And what of fly tipping?”

And what of the suggestion that a LibDem Cllr was quizzing a LibDem dominated cabinet, propped up by two lone Labour Comrades, all about the non-political decision taken by a Conservative led County Council that clearly holds the overall power in the County?

Like I said - it’s only a suggestion.

The on the record response from the CBC cabinet was at temperate as the St Osyth seasonal weather. Council Leader Anne Turrell pointed out that this wasn’t a decision taken in Colchester; Labour cabinet member Cllr Tim Young added:

“No consultation was taken with Wivenhoe Town Council. The impact on Wivenhoe was not canvassed with the locals either. This is the wrong decision.”

Best tell the wife, then Cllr Young (male variety) who just happens to be a member of Essex County Council.

Whoops.

[...although I can't see Cllr Young (female variety) propping up the County Council Conservatives in the same way that Cllr Young (male variety) manages to prop up the LibDems back at the borough level.]

The final word on Wednesday went to LibDem cabinet member Cllr Smith:

“This is not joined up thinking. In the week in which we as a Borough are trying to promote food banks, a re-cycling centre used by our residents is being closed. We are protecting public services - that’s the difference between us and Essex County Council.”

Which led to the conclusion that the non-political issue of the Conservative led Essex County Council deciding to close the re-cycling centre at Britain’s Driest Village causing something of a stink at the LibLab coalition at Colchester, after a LibDem Wivenhoe ward Cllr asked the bleedin’ obvious.

Try squeezing that into 140 characters, Comrade.

And so it seems that re-cycling has become something of a political issue. How else to explain the streets of uncollected garden and plastic bags from the streets of lower Wivenhoe on Wednesday?

Just don’t play the political blame game please.

For every ying there is a yang; darkness will follow daylight and damned be anyone that gets in the way of the GOOD NEWS story that is The Cook’s Shipyard Newsletter, December 2011 issue.

Which is all a bit of a Tale of Two Sides, in more ways than one. The day after Wivenhoe Town Council distributed its newsletter, informing residents that:

“Your Town Council have been negotiating, with professional legal advice, the legal terms of the [Cook's] lease. WTC is obliged to sign those leases but some terms were totally unacceptable…”

…it’s only the reverse ferret from Taylor Wimpey and the GOOD NEWS that inevitably comes out of all corporate communication. Opposites certainly don’t attract - especially so when the financial power of a developer appears to hold all control over a community.

All communication is good however, no matter how bad the good news is, if you see what I mean. Credit to Simon Brown, the Managing Director of Taylor Wimpey East London, for whacking out the seasonal cheer to keep Wivenhoe residents informed.

The tale of two sides continues in print. The front page is the GOOD NEWS of Taylor Wimpey sponsoring Wivenhoe Town Football Club U-9′s to the tune of £500. This is indeed GOOD NEWS - the kids get a new kit, and of course the corporate orgaisation gets to flash its fancy logo all over the front of the tops.

It’s not quite a “let them eat cake” moment, but once again, the GOOD NEWS that Taylor Wimpey is going to splash out on some mince pies during the Big Wivenhoe Turn On at St Mary’s, is a decent gesture.

But speak to the residents of Valley Road and the surrounds, and indeed flip over the Cook’s Shipyard Newsletter, and the GOOD NEWS goes a little wonky.

The corporate friendly football sponsorship and the mince pie to appease the locals gives way to:

Minimising Disruption

“We’re continuing to take action to ensure our neighbours [eh?] experience as little inconvenience as possible during construction work. This includes taking special measures to migate the impact of certain activity, and responding to issues raised by the local community.”

But what came first, the chicken or the egg? The issues raised by the local community or the developer’s own plans to make sure that none of this disruption would occur in the first place?

Or how about simply the folly of building a whole new community - lovely though the Shipyard folk are - without any thought given to the basic infrastructure of road access, schools, health care etc..

But that’s a ying that is out of the yang of the developer.

“We continue to fill in potholes as and when they appear on access road used by our construction traffic. We addressed the issues of dust during dry spells by watering the access route along Anglesea Road when necessary.”

Which isn’t quite the experience that the residents of Valley Road have been encountering of late.

A group of locals met up with Simon Brown over the summer, to put forward the reality of living along the narrow route that is being used as the only access point to build the new homes.

What came out of the meeting was slightly different to the GOOD NEWS of the Cook’s Shipyard Newsletter. Out of the 94 new homes being built as part of Phase 3, only two will be for sale as social housing. Thirty homes are on the flood plain and have skirting boards painted on both sides, waist high electrical sockets and flood protective doors.

It’s not just local residents that are experiencing a different view to the GOOD NEWS of the newsletter either. The developer states:

Regenerating the Docks

“Taylor Wimpey’s regeneration of the former dockland at Cook’s Shipyard has moved on, with a key community project nearing completion - and work on another about to begin. The fisherman’s store at the wet dock is set to be finished before Christmas… work on a dinghy park was on course to start in the final week of November and is due for completion in February.”

And so a slight delay, and another slight shifting of the yings and yangs when it comes to the experience of Wivenhoe Town Council. Legal advice has been obtained by WTC, which felt that pressure was put on the council to sing the leases to manage these facilities. The fear was that they might inflict a long-lasting financial legacy.

It appears that a compromise, of sorts, has been reached. Which is often the way with developers.

A genuine Well Done You to Taylor Wimpey for supporting the football kids and for forking out for the mince pies. Building a community is one thing. Sustaining it is another matter.

Ying, yang, yikes.

Communicate with your residents, save a tree, welcome in a new age with details of the *cough* recently launched Wivenhoe Town Council website.

Yep - the Autumn edition of the WTC newsletter is currently competing with the rush of early Christmas cards for attention on the doormats of Wivenhoe. And with the new website now in place, maybe - just maybe - the final tree has been felled in keeping residents informed on all the hyperlocal council activity?

WTC takes communication seriously - *very* seriously. I soon realised this when plans for the *cough* recently launched WTC website were put in place over the summer months. There remains much misunderstanding as to what the specific remit and roles of the council is. The Autumn newsletter hopefully helps to address this.

Leading with details of the new website, we learn that:

“Wivenhoe has a new council website: www.wivenhoetowncouncil.co.uk, that will give residents a modern easy to use site that keeps everyone up to date on town council business.

The old Encyclopedia site is still available as before [hurrah!] on www.wivenhoe.gov.uk, though council items will gradually be removed over the coming months, so that this will eventually have non Council items only as well as providing archive for clubs and individuals.”

With a challenging year ahead (budgets, building work and Jubilee bunting) communication with our council is essential. I still love the traditional pub gossip form of communication, but sometimes you just need the official stamp of online approval and hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Rumours of the old police station houses becoming a council lap-dancing club are sadly untrue.

And so back to the newsletter, and back to the Jubilee - hurrah! I think…

“Plans are already afoot to celebrate this event. So far in the planning stage:

2nd June - Art on the Railings in the churchyard

2nd June - Diamond Jubilee Ball

3rd June - Church Thanks Giving Service at St Mary’s

4th June - Family Day at the KGV

5th June - free for residents to arrange their own street parties or other events.”

Art on the Railings is on my radar; I never could turn down a ball. Street parties are, um, right up my street.

Volunteers, as ever are needed. The good Town Clerk can be contacted via the website. Oh - and did someone mention a Wivenhoe Jubilee jigsaw? Jubilation, joyous, jolly good work, etc.

And so what of that lap dancing club?

“The pair of police houses in the High Street have been a familiar sight for generations of Wivenhoe residents. Gradual changes in the style of policing have resulted in the loss of the traditional village bobby.

Clearly the land has crucial strategic importance for Wivenhoe. The potential to combine with existing facilities and create a lasting and useful asset for the people of Wivenhoe is enormous.

The Town Council has therefore entered into detailed negotiations with Essex Police with a view to purchasing the plot on behalf of the town. A formal offer of sale has been agreed and the arrangements are on track to meet a target completion date of March 2012.”

The purchase of any property is never simple. Dealing with the long - or even short - arm of the law adds complications, especially so when cuts are in place. Securing the properties for municipal purposes has to be a good move.

But who pays for all of this? Not directly related to the purchase of the police houses, but it is good to see that the classic you scratch my back form of bartering is in place when dealing with predatory developers:

Developers Pay for Amenities

“Recent work b WTC has helped release development monies for three much needed causes. What happens normally is that contributions from development (S106 money) can only be allocated to facilities that fall within the ward of that development. WTC Councillors were concerned that contributions from the major developments, such as Cooks Shipyard, should be available to all the residents of Wivenhoe.”

The town suffers by a fault of a geographic quirk in being very much a North / South divide. Developments down at the bottom don’t often balance with the needs of the folk up at The Cross. Our four Colchester Borough Councillors have now forgotten party lines and had their heads banged together, so to speak, by WTC and singed up to:

“Work together across ward boundaries for the good of the people of Wivenhoe with regard to the spending of Section 106 and CIL funds. Preferably, monies should be spent in the ward where they are generated. However, where it can be demonstrated that the benefits will reach and include the residents of the donating ward, then the monies can justifiably be spent in the adjoining ward.”

Which doesn’t quite mean that Rollerworld mark II is coming to The Cross via Cook’s filthy wonga - which is a shame, as I’m sure you would all agree. But boundaries are fluid and flexible, and so too are our Borough Cllr’s.

Which is a thought that you don’t want to spend too much time pondering…

And so what of Cook’s?

Oh Lordy…

“This project grinds on slowly and during recent months we have been made aware that many residents, especially those new to the town, are not fully informed with regard to WTC’s responsibilities.”

These are then explained:

“Berthing facilities for up to six Wivenhoe fishing vessels in the wet dock; accommodation for a fisherman’s store and public toilet with facilities for disabled; a public slipway; a public dinghy park, a public car park for visitors, an open space and play area.”

But it’s not all plain sailing down by the banks of the Colne:

“Unfortunately, any supporting funds to manage these facilities were not forthcoming in spite of efforts by WTC at the time. Your Town Council have been negotiating, with professional legal advice, the legal terms of the lease. WTC is obliged to sign those leases but some terms were totally unacceptable.”

Ouch.

New in Brief covers Speedwatch - a simple enough premise that has somehow managed to get rather bonkers *ahem* elsewhere… - the new 101 non-emergency police number and confirmation that a zebra crossing will finally be put in place opposite the Co-op.

I hear that plans for a grand Abbey Road style photoshoot featuring the four Borough Cllr’s will formally open the crossing. I know which Cllr best resembles Ringo. Pictures to follow on the new WTC website…

Wivenhoe’s Bike Guru - indeed *the* Bike Guru for the whole of Sunny Colch - will be rolling out with the inaugural Tour de Colchester on Wednesday evening.

Chapeau!

Matt Lawford has had residency at the pop up space of the Hidden Kiosks in Colchester for just over two months now. He has another scheduled month to run, serving extremely fine coffee and fixing… fixies (and other bicycles) in tandem - geddit?

What has been truly wonderful about the venture has been the assorted events that have sprung up around the otherwise dead space. Under the far from cycling inclement cycling weather, Wednesday evenings have been put aside as a social evening each week. North Essex has past history in combining bicycling with culture - no surprises that Mr Mule was an originator.

Bicycling films have been screened; local musicians have added ad hoc entertainment. Hanging around an old bus station was never this much fun for me back in the day.

Which brings us round to Wednesday and Le Tour de Colchester. The town’s growing popularity of cycling continues, both within and outside of the formal funding and organistation of the status of Colchester being a Cycle Town.

But for all the debate about cycle lanes, lock ups and lycra, sometimes you just need to clip into your SPD’s and head off for a friendly hack around town. Le Tour de Colch is no bike warrior Critical Mass event - it is simply an early evening ride around town, and then all back to the Guru’s coffee shop for a warm cup of whatever turns you on and some local musicians.

Le Tour rolls out at 7pm on Wednesday. Running bicycle repairs can be undertaken down at the Kiosk until 6pm. Lights are essential, lycra most certainly isn’t.

As for the bicycles? Ride with whatever you feel comfortable on. There is a growing hyperlocal presence around Britain’s Oldest Recorded for mini-wheel machines. We’re talking tyres sizes of twenty inches and lower, Madam.

The Colne Valley Mini Wheelers bicycling club has even been formed - blimey.

Much of the interest can be traced back to the Guru himself. As well as running the Cafe and Workshop down at the Kiosks, Matt also works for Re-Cycle, Colchester’s bike aid for Africa charity.

By some peculiar hyperlocal twist of fate, the Moorside lock up seems to be receiving a steady supply of Raleigh 20 bicycles. Interest grew, a website was published and now there is a semi-serious club.

So yeah - #ridecolchester, ride Le Tour de Sunny Colch and keep the love for the mini wheelers real.

Chapeau!

Just another North Essex estuary autumnal sunset.

To @firstsite! …on Saturday afternoon for something of a pop will eat itself approach to architecture. Or even art will eat itself, with the occasion being a talk by Jay Merrick, the architectural critic at The Independent about… the trouble and strife to build the Golden Goose in Sunny Colch.

Any fears that this would be an afternoon of beard strokers talking all about themselves were soon put aside upon seeing the almost full firstsite auditorium, housing a genuine cross section of the good folk of Sunny Colch.

The building has its critics, but equally there is an unheard, almost unrepresented critical mass of folk in Britain’s Oldest Recorded that hasn’t swallowed up the agenda put forward by the town’s MP or local media.

Jay outlined the afternoon ahead, framing and conextexualising - as architectural critics often do - the similarities that firstsite has had with its contemporaries in Wakefield and Margate. Three Towns, Three Battles for Art in the Community explained how opposition to art is something that seems a recurring theme; firstsite has had to overcome the doubting Tom, Dick and, um, Bobs as well construction woes.

But we are where we are, as that other great symbolism of a Great Big Empty vacuum was fond of saying when it came to showboating vanity projects. But firstsite is no Great Big Empty, and it certainly isn’t a vanity project. The structure of the building is only the start; engaging with the community is the challenge ahead.

I’m starting to sound like Mr Tony…

These Saturday afternoon sessions are a great start. Free of entry and staged at a civilised time of 2pm, you could wander in off the High Street with your bag of groceries and settle down for a session of mid-brow discussion. Which is exactly what some of the Happy Shoppers in Sunny Colch did.

Jay was keen to emphasise that this comparison wasn’t a beauty contest. Which is a shame, because the Golden Goose stacks up rather well when compared to Wakefield and Margate. The former has a lakeside setting, whilst the other is beside the seaside. firstsite has to contend with a half-arsed bus station as the visual backdrop, yet somehow still manages to look resplendent in the late autumn golden sun.

The question posed by Jay was:

“The Tate Modern has made modern art cool. It is now commodifed as a lifestyle choice. Why has there been a problem in creating these social spaces?”

Modern art was described as “spiky and fractured.” A slide showing Francis Bacon‘s disfigured Michael Leiris portrait was displayed, with Jay introducing it as:

“A portrait of the town’s MP - how very dare they ignore my thoughts on firstsite.”

Whoops.

Funding and a distrust of anything left of centre seem to hold the answer in winning over the cynics. Thankfully in Sunny Colch we just about have the funding, as well as a local Borough Council that is slightly left of centre, if you squint out of one eye and stand on one leg.

Jay explained how the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield has transformed the town’s main lifestyle choice from alcohol to art. I often like to combine the two.

Heading south and the Turner at Margate was described as having:

“Breathed new life into Benefits-on-Sea.”

Ouch.

A cup cake cafe nearby on the front has given the appearance of “Islington being teleported to the coast.” All of this changing landscape leads to the process of art as a gentrifier. The *ahem* Cultural Quarter in Sunny Colch certainly needs some upwardly mobile activity right now. This raises certain ethics however, something that Jay was keen to explore.

The transformation from run down bus shelter to the Golden Goose sitting next to… a half-arsed run down bus shelter was explained chronologically. The Minories morphed into firstsite, but with great difficulty for all involved.

With a background of having lived in both Essex and Suffolk, Jay understood the complexities in trying to deliver visual arts facility to Sunny Colch. He praised the Minories, but believed that it has historically had a stand off-ish attitude. He believes that the divide between broad art and the local community can be traced back to The Minories.

But with firstsite now finally standing, what of the future relationship between art and the community? A cultural and business case needs to be made to both local councils and interested parties such as the University. It is perhaps with apt timing that Colchester Borough Council’s cabinet is debating the future of funding for firstsite at a cabinet meeting this week (although to be fair, this is simply some knockabout early political pantomime put up by a rogue Labour stooge who wants to make a name for himself…)

Jay eulogised over the firstsite auditorium and cafe, praising the potential here when compared to the facilities at Wakefield and Margate. It’s probably not in the remit for the original ethos of firstsite, but the cafe does have the fastest free WIFI that I have so far managed to snaffle in all of Sunny Colch.

The open space of firstsite was also recognised, with the deliberate move away from the dull white cube structure that dominates so many faceless modern art spaces. The key space is the entrance - half of the building is free for locals to roam around at their leisure. A sense of community ownership is important here.

Jay concluded the talk by stating that for firstsite to work, it must add to the quality of life in Sunny Colch. This was pretty much the agenda for the recent Creative Colchester collaboration session staged at firstsite, with a breakfast brain storming session on how to take creativity out into the town.

“Colchester will decide that it will come to love firstsite. If the cafe serves a decent pint of Adnams then it might just win over the town’s MP as well.”

Chin chin.

To @15QueenStreet! …on Thursday evening for a teetotal approach towards print and pastoral musical charm. The monthly Creative in Colchester evening was themed around the long lost - and once again found and fashionable - art of printmaking. The music celebrated the North Essex charm with a showcase set from Snippet, a lovely chap who is quite simply in love with the North Essex Riviera.

Aren’t we all?

This was a sobering experience, in more ways than one. The 15 Queen Street bar helped to discover hidden creative talents that some folk never knew existed. My ongoing Ibuprofen fixation found me satisfied in sobriety, and safely out of the wall-to-wall vomiting danger zone, come the time to contribute to the discussion about the finer art of font styling.

The first speakers for the evening were the Essex Print Club. I loved the big balls upfront approach of speaking for your whole county, yet operating out of a humble base at Brightlingsea.

Blimey.

It is exactly this ambitious approach that has seen the loose collective of print lovers make such a success of the pop up space down at the Waterside Gallery at Brightlingsea over the summer months. Presented with the opportunity of a rent free let, the Essex Print Club - essentially a couple of hightly resourceful students at the Colchester Institute - somehow managed to blag a residency down at the Brightlingsea front.

It seems that there is an underbelly of print based artists operating out of the North Essex area. Interest spread quickly, and within a week the Essex Print Club was exhibiting and trading. James Dodds, the celebrated print maker supreme, offered his support and attended the opening. Over £2,000 was taken during the two-month residency, 10% of which went towards the RNLI.

There’s more to this font farce that splashing out some Comic Sans in SIZE 32 I thought, just as Justin Knopp set up his presentation, talking all about his growing Typoretum traditional print business.

Based in Coggeshall, Justin has developed a childhood passion for print into a burgeoning local business. It is the old Victorian printing presses that hold the fascination - an expensive hobby that needed a business plan to keep the craft alive.

You can whack out a print run of a thousand flyers straight from your MacBook in under a minute, but the attention to detail and authenticity of a rolling press still captures something of a magical charm.

Justin explained how he has managed to salvage many of the old printing presses, and then install these in his Coggeshall workshop. The order books are busy, from the staple wedding invites, through to more experimental work and the exploration of new fonts that holds the interest. This is a craft that Justin is passionate about keeping alive, and hopeful of passing on to future generations of printers.

But it wasn’t all about the printing blocks on Thursday evening. Sometimes you just need a laid back, genuinely lovely chap with a softly, softly-spoken voice and a dandy style approach to tailoring to cheer you up. I never could resist a man who wears a splendid pair of loafers.

Snippet - or Johnno Casson as the postman knows him - is a Colchester based singer-songwriter that is simply in love with the area. If I had persued my clumsy fudge finger bashing out of three Billy Bragg chords back in the day, I could quite easily see the hyperlocal happy happy tunes of Snippet as something that I would like to aspire to.

Having moved out of London some seven years ago to find a better life in Sunny Colch [um, spot the theme...?] Snippet has found the ideal base in which to write and record. It is very much a cottage industry - or even shed industry - with the back of the garden set up offering up a makeshift recording studio and even mini video production unit.

Three songs were sung by Snippet on Thursday evening, all featured on his current Slowly Slowly Catchee Monkey album. This is Essex stripped back with a series of simple love songs for the County. It was the perfect riposte for the mainstream media twaddle that now thinks that it is incredibly witty to introduce any Essex themed piece with a The Only Way Is… lazy approach to journalism.

Working with Cool Publicity, Snippet has a series of pop up shows in local shops and spaces currently being arranged around Colchester. He has also worked with Ady Johnson down the back of the garden.

Mighty fine though the orange juice @15QueenStreet was, a train out of St Botolph’s and being back in bed in time for Question Time beckoned. My mind was still buzzing with all the print possibilities and serenades to the Clacton sunset.

I downed half a bottle of JD, designed my own font and wrote a rock opera all about Frinton, long before the first Question Time SHOUT AT THE TV moment.

Creative, inspiring, economical with the truth..