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To the Hythe! …early on Friday morning for a meeting with Bob Russell MP.

Blimey.

I say meeting - it was more like a friendly fire side chat with the LibDem MP for Sunny Colch, but without the fireside but an army of garden gnomes to surround us instead.

No kidding.

The very lovely folk of @Colchester101 magazine had kindly arranged the interview. My task was to turn up just off Hythe Hill, suited and booted and transform Saint Bob into the cover star for 101 for next month.

Cripes.

Having heard tales of trepidation ahead of the interview, I did my research. Voting records, expenses, um… firststite.

“Bob is Bob is Bob” is the phrase that kept on coming back to me. He is as much a part of Colchester as a Roman centurion is, proudly defiant, doing his own thing and not afraid of upsetting anyone that deviates him away from his task of talking up the town.

I read the wise Mr Mule’s words on his Westminster meeting with Bob before leaving base. It had a calming effect knowing that if the Pop Genius took something of a shine to Bob, then hopefully my cover star quest shouldn’t go disastrously wrong.

I needn’t have worried. A few sweaty palms just before 9am (mine, not his) and then before we started recording, I was made to feel at home in his constituency office with a tour of the various artefacts that have been accumulated in his fourteen years as Colchester’s MP.

Garden gnomes figured heavily.

I had planned for twenty minutes - thirty at a push - to survive the Colchester political cauldron. Forty-five minutes later and it was me who was wrapping up the interview, conscience of the editing that would be required, should our conversation continue.

I’m going to write it up for @Colchester101 over the next few days, giving it some context and exploring in more depth some of the wider themes for the town. But for m’blog, I thought I would open up an insight, and pull out some of the themes that may be of relevance to a Wivenhoe angle.

We start off with the city status bid for Colchester. All the prestige may be focussed upon the town itself, but what would city status actually mean for folk living in Wivenhoe?

“I know that some of the people living in the Borough outside of Colchester are not enthused. That’s fine - I’m not actually enthused that places outside of Colchester are in the Borough.

When I first got elected to Colchester Borough Council in 1971, it was just the town. Local government reorganisation meant that from 1st April 1974, Wivenhoe Urban and District Council merged with Colchester.”

Good point, well made. I have often found it perplexing why we have to pay Council Tax to Colchester Borough Council, yet we have an MP who represents Harwich and North Essex.

“Frankly I wouldn’t lose any sleep if we had another local government reorganisation and we went back to the historic Borough of Colchester, which by happy coincidence, is the boundary of my constituency.”

The above quotes from Bob read rather harshly - don’t take it too personally - I *think* that he has a lot of love for Wivenhoe. Off mic and we touched upon his involvement in helping to put in place the Wivenhoe Trail. He spoke highly of Conservative Borough Cllr Ann Quarrie of the Quay ward, and her personal input on this project.

It also seems that Bob is an occasional drinker at the Black Buoy - we spoke (off mic…) about Boxing Day and the Colchester Morris Men. I truly wish that I had recorded the wonderful phrase “I confess that I am something of a Morris Men groupie…”

I looked rather sheepishly into my notes when Bob remarked “that’s a little silly really” in response to my point that a sense of community could be lost when a town becomes a city.

Ask a silly question…

“Somewhere like Wivenhoe has immense pride in its community. It is distinctive from the town of Colchester.”

I think we were both in agreement in keeping this status quo, although possibly coming from different perspectives…

Keeping Colchester and Wivenhoe at a safe distance of course is the Hythe. This is an area that has fascinated me much of late, mostly coming out of Mr Mule’s recent ramblings and observations.

Bob also has big plans for the former industrial heartland of the area:

“I want the Hythe to marketed as Colchester’s Second London Station, to try and get people who are currently clogging up the North Station to start their journey at the Hythe.”

Which would seem to make sense.

And then for the next part of the interview, I simply couldn’t shirk away from the VAF and the imminent opening of firstsite.

Neither did Bob.

Having been an incredibly vocal critic of the visual arts facility that is about to open in Colchester, I asked Bob if he would be attending the opening ceremony next month:

“I believe I’ve been invited. I sense that if I were there, that would be a distraction. It’s their big day. It’s been said that I want the project to fail - NO I don’t want the project to fail. The last thing I want is for this to be an even bigger burden on the people of Colchester.”

We tracked back slightly, and Bob’s original solution seems to be a hybrid of the bus station and public art:

“Rather than have England’s 300th publicly funded art gallery, you could have England’s first bus station art gallery.”

Blimey.

I tried to explore the benefits that firstsite will eventually bring to Colchester - better to have it here, than elsewhere, etc…

“I would have been delighted if this millstone had gone somewhere else.”

Which is Bob being Bob being Bob. Which is also why he is so successful at getting elected, and why he is such a popular figure around the town. The inner aspiring artist within (me, not Bob) has to admit that he has the pulse of the man on the street (i.e. the electorate) to perfection.

We moved on with the Nu Labour phrase of “we are where we are,” both grimacing, both remembering that the local Labour party have been in bed with the VAF from day one.

Bob was keen to put aside the point of view that he is an arts philistine. He rolled off many leading artists in the area that are there to be celebrated, and then asked me head on:

“Are you aware that we have the leading accordion band in the country here in Colchester?”

Um…

Bob quite genuinely then spoke some very complimentary words towards Kath Wood, the Director of firstsite - like I said, Bob has a friendly growl, rather than a viscous bite.

But the point is that Bob Russell clearly loves the arts, just not the more avant-garde angle that artists sometimes have a tendency to disappear upwards:

“There is an elitist strand, that even at this moment, cannot grasp the fact that they are so unpopular. They could retrieve part of the situation by saying, well actually, it would help us to get people through the door if tourist coaches can deposit them outside our door. Let’s go out into the community. But they won’t.”

It remains to be seen if this taking public art out into the community is successful for firstsite, but on a related topic, this weekend of course sees the Colchester Free Festival in Castle Park - an event being organised by the creative community @15QueenStreet. How much more public can you get?

And finally - will you be standing again for public office at the next general election? Will the coalition still be in place? Is there actually anyone out there that can take the place of the huge personality that Bob Russell has been able to offer the Colchester electorate?

“David Cameron feels more at home working with some of the LibDem MP’s than he does working with some of his right wing head banging Tory MP’s - of which there are several right wing head banging Tory MP’s in Essex”

OUCH.

Tell It Like It Is, Bob.

“I’m sixty-five, I shall be sixty-nine at the next general election. I think we’ve got to see what happens. It’s a question of maintaining that enthusiasm, and belief that I can do the job. I enjoy representing my hometown in Parliament. However long that goes on for, Mother Nature will decide.”

And the electorate, I added to the record…

Bob clearly loves Colchester and would rather spend his time in the town than having to compete with all the nonsense that Westminster brings. But for a successful local politician to speak up for his hometown, he needs to work in the political twaddle that is Parliament.

I found him a warm, illuminating and bloody funny bloke in which to spend just under an hour in the company of on a drab Friday morning. Off mic and we swapped tales of *shhh* the messy world of Lambeth politico life. I rather liked Bob’s take.

I think that he enjoyed our chat - he suggested sending a copy to Andrew Phillips and the Colchester Recalled oral history project. I like to think that in years to come, local historians will hang on to every word from a blunt bloke laying out his vision for the town / city in which they are now living.

Other topics that we touched on included the expansion of the town (“too quick,”) trains and trams (“We still need a visionary government - we didn’t get it from Labour and we aren’t getting it from the coalition,”) tuition fees at the University (ouch), the Knowledge Gateway, listing Wivenhoe Park and the “Essex Olympics of 2012” - a phrase which I rather like. Stratford is a lot closer than Sunny Stockwell.

And so yeah - quite a character, quite a charmer.

Would I vote for him?

Ah… not living within his Colchester constituency boundary, and that is a hyperlocal, hypothetical question, Comrades.

A lost Saturday afternoon spent drinking coffee, talking bicycles and listening to poetry; half pints of lager shandy at The Greyhound were also involved.

Splendid.

It all started off so innocently - most mistakes do these days - but somehow managed to manifest into a late August afternoon of shandy and scones.

Whoops.

A very kind invite for mid-morning coffee round at the home of Wivenhoe’s esteemed Bike Guru got Saturday off to a good start. Any man who likes to combine cycling with coffee is always worth a chin wag with.

As well as offering a Bike Guru service around Wivenhoe, plus manning the mechanical duties at the very ACE Re-Cycle across in Colchester, Matt - for he is your Bike Guru - is about to set up a cycling ‘n coffee shop down by the old bus station in Sunny Colch.

It’s an idea that is not new to London, and hopefully now is the perfect time to introduce a similar service around these North Essex estuary parts. As well as serving high-class coffee, bike repairs will be available, all within a space that celebrates cycling culture.

This may take the form of showing live coverage of the Grand Tours, or perhaps film evenings to screen some of the classic cycling documentaries.

Keep Colchester Cycling will also be based down at the kiosks in the old bus station, sharing the space with Bike Guru and his coffee n’ cycling cultural exchange.

Meanwhile, back in Wivenhoe and there was a coffee machine to road test. I admit to being more of a Tetley Tea type of chap - perhaps at a push then a rather generous teaspoon of Nescafe if I’m going for that continental look.

It was certainly an education in the Wivenhoe kitchen as I was shown how the machine works, or rather how you work with the machine and tame all that lively hissing and spurting.

The Bike Guru has grand plans, and having listened to them with great interest, I explained my own grand plan for the remainder of the day:

Mr Mule, LIVE and DIRECT Upstairs at The Greyhound.

Oh Lordy.

A brief bicycle fixation back at my base, and soon we were propping up the bar, ordering the half shandies and even shouting a round for the always engaging Pop Genius of this Parish.

Currently trading as Wivenhoe’s Leading Light Entertainer - and who are we to doubt this? - Mr Mule was on fine form as he prepared to entertain the afternoon crowd Upstairs at The Greyhound with verse, song and good humour.

Some parallels were in place from what I had heard from Matt earlier in the day. Upstairs at The Greyhound is a dead space during the day. Much like the old kiosks in Colchester, Mr Mule is keen to explore this and fill it with happy folk.

It was a mixed crowd that had come to see the Leading Entertainer - a local borough Councillor, a young chap dreading the Back to School routine that awaits, Mr Mule’s Mum.

Blimey.

The first half of the performance focussed upon The Hythe. Not at all wanting to claim credit for being the muse for Mr Mule, but having read my recent @Colchester101 piece all about the old industrial heartbeat of the Colne, this sparked an interest in revisiting some of his previous research.

In the unlikely event that you find yourself standing on the platform at the Hythe train station, do take the time to take in the words and ideas that decorate the area. This was a commission for Mr Mule, who undertook months of research and writing.

[note to self: you may have a fancy dan stereo mic mp3 gizmo, but it still sounds slightly ropey, unless you are sitting facing the performer - doh! Apologies...]

These ideas also came together for one Saturday afternoon only, Upstairs at The Greyhound. We heard about the old boys who worked the port, the returning commuters from Liverpool Street and the whores of Hythe Hill.

It’s quite a lively area, I tell you.

Mr Mule was joined by Dr Adrian May, a well-known figure on the folk circuit, and a Hythe resident. His murder ballad was one of the most beautiful pieces of music that I have heard in some time, and somehow it just seemed to make perfect sense on a Saturday afternoon at The Greyhound, just as the estuary rain took issue with the fag end of the summer.

Mr Mule returned for a mandolin version of Home Counties Boy. I have touched on before how this is his personal calling card. Everything that you need to know about Wivenhoe’s (current) Leading Light Entertainer is encapsulated in song and verse.

And then just as the Pop Genius sang:

“and don’t drop your H’s, my mum said to me…”

…I glimpsed his dear old Ma sitting opposite have a twinkle in her eye, a slight foot tappin’ moment and an even a singing of the chorus.

Awww…

Lovely.

Mr Mule of course was oblivious to it all, doing the rock ‘n roll thing. Still, the moment was there, and I’m sure a very proud dear old Ma went home feeling rather happy.

Just like me.

A brief break for beer and scones, care of the wonderful @Seelkram and his burgeoning Well Bread Wivenhoe business, and then we were back for more songs and dance (sort of) from the top turn of the afternoon.

Pound for pound this was poetry and pastry value for money. Where else on a hit and miss North Essex Saturday afternoon are you going mix songs, scones and shandy?

So yeah - quite a random start to the weekend. I blame the seriously strong coffee.

More of the same please, kind Sirs.

This piece was first published in the brilliant Colchester 101 magazine. Copies are available for free around pubs, shops and other public places in the town.

What makes a community? It is a question that is as simple as it is complicated. It is also a question that has been occupying Colchester Borough Council of late.

Concern has been raised that the area around the Hythe has no identity. The accusation is that a spiralling sprawl of a satellite town has been allowed to shoot up, yet no one knows exactly what is the point of existence for the Hythe.

If that sounds slightly existential, then it really shouldn’t. The Hythe has a proud industrial history connected to Colchester Dock. Now it seems it is simply a byword to describe either a stretch of buy to let properties, or a short cut for the B & Q roundabout.

When looking at what makes a local community co-operate together, Colchester is blessed as a borough with some rather wonderful examples. The Dutch Quarter manages to contain a unique historical perspective, whilst simultaneously living in the back garden of the centre of the town itself.

Wivenhoe is well known for the unique community spirit that has grown organically, not to mention slightly anarchically. Look beyond all the misguided bad headlines that the Greenstead attracts, and you can also find a genuine community spirit within.

But the Hythe is simply the Hythe. Manufacturing has long since been lost. In its place, the town planners have failed to manufacture a self-contained community in which to live.

It’s not surprising really - people constitute a community, not a collection of identikit one and two-bedroom commuter flats. The area has been allowed to over-build with buy to lets, with little or no thought as to the social infrastructure that is needed to support the locals.

The Pride wine bar has recently closed, leaving little optimism for the area around the Hythe that still remains underdeveloped. A worrying spate of ‘random’ fires have characterised the old industrial units in the past six months. Essex Fire Brigade is concerned about the ‘randomness’ of these incidents and is investigating further.

The irony of course is that the Hythe should be the perfect place in which to grow community activities. The natural riverfront could provide the perfect backdrop for a thriving mini-town within itself.

Instead we have a hangover from the industrial past, with neither the political, nor economic will in which to dredge the Colne. The Pooh Facotry downstream provides a constant reminder of the industrial euphemism in which Colchester Borough Council now holds for the Hythe.

And so what can be done to try and build a genuine community to match the matchbox housing that has appeared around the Hythe? The University’s Knowledge Gateway is going to add to the immediate local area over the coming couple of years.

Private residential accommodation is all part of the plan, hopefully bringing in some new energy and enthusiasm for the Eastern edge of Colchester. But for Colchester Borough Council to create a sense of community around the Hythe then people must be put first, rather than the profit of private developers.

A micro community does currently exist along the banks of the old Colchester Dock. The houseboats have shown how local folk can have a pride in where they live, if they are allowed to live the lifestyle in which they choose.

It’s not going to happen overnight, but bringing on board the experiences of the houseboat owners to the buy to let neighbours, is the first step towards bringing a genuine sense of community back to the Hythe.

This piece was first published in the brilliant Colchester 101 magazine. Copies are available for free around pubs, shops and other public places in the town.

Did you get the chance to vote in the recent Colchester Borough Council local elections? Was your ward one of the twenty seats that were rotated in the rather bizarre Election by Thirds system that is operated in Colchester? Notice any change overnight?

Welcome to the new boss - same as the old boss.

No seats changed hands. A big civic congratulations to the seventeen Councillors who retained their seats, plus the three incoming Councillors replace their retiring colleagues from the same party. Colchester Borough Council is still made up of a ruling coalition of 26 LibDems and 7 Labour seats, with 24 Conservatives and 3 Independents in opposition.

So what the chuffers was that all about, then?

Accountability, keeping Councillors on their toes, and working for every single vote are the arguments in favour of asking the residents of Colchester to vote three years out of four in a ward rotation system. The electorate also has the chance to kick out any party that isn’t performing, rather than wait once every four years in the traditional all up for grabs system.

It can also lead to instability if the Council changes hands each year and there is insufficient time to implement the manifesto. Which may just happen to be very convenient for a local political party…

But here in Colchester and there is a tradition of consensual local politics. Some tribalism exists come election time, but when it comes to making Colchester a better place to live and work, most local politicians present a rather united front.

The coalition may be a little rocky at Westminster, but the current Colchester coalition between the LibDems and Labour seems to have found a positive, working compromise. Decisions are made in an almost apolitical vacuum with the good of Colchester genuinely being the driving force for local political policy.

Which all makes the farce and cost of mounting a campaign three years out of every four something slightly unnecessary. There is almost the danger of manufacturing division within what is a relatively unified borough. With major events such as the city status bid, the Carnival and the Colchester Free Festival all coming up, consensus politics is vitally important for our town right now.

Add in the uncertainty of economic funding from central government - something that all borough councils of all persuasions around the county are having to confront - and you can see how doing the dirty on your Colchester coalition partner on the door step can’t be a positive approach for the challenges that lay ahead for us.

And so if you did get the chance to vote in the recent Colchester Borough Council local elections, then here’s hoping that you actually took the opportunity to participate. Political apathy is even less preferable to Election by Thirds.

If you weren’t in one of the twenty wards that had the opportunity of a trip to the polling station, then no worries - your time will come round, sooner rather than later. But for a unified borough, I can’t but help think that we need a unified system of an election system.

This piece was first published in the brilliant Colchester 101 magazine. Copies are available for free around pubs, shops and other public places in the town.

The Colchester Carnival is coming to town and members of the local community shrug their shoulders and say meh… Actually, that is incredibly unfair. Having stepped in to try and salvage the Carnival, Colchester Round Table deserves every success in its efforts to keep this local tradition of floats, um, afloat.

The problem is one of image - isn’t that always the case with Carnivals? I’m not talking about pasty-faced coppers grinning a nervous cheesy pose for the photographers, but the problem of the complete disaster that was the attempt to stage the Colchester Carnival some twelve months ago.

It’s not great to dwell upon past mistakes, but to look forward July 16th this summer we need to know exactly what went wrong between the previous organisers and Colchester Borough Council.

Councillor Nick Barlow, the cabinet member for Economic Development, Culture and Tourism (work ‘n play) recognises that mistakes were made. Writing on his personal blog, he states:

“There’s an extremely lengthy post or article to be written by someone on all the reasons why Colchester Carnival didn’t take place this year, but that’s for another time…”

The main fallout was centred around safety, the procession route, road signage and stewarding. It’s not as simple as stating let’s throw a massive street party and see what happens.

The economics of the High Street are central to the Colchester economy. Whilst you’re wiggling your bottom in the air and getting all hot and steamy down Head Street, the local shopkeepers are out of pocket.

Thankfully the Round Table has the support of the Council this year, as well as some very generous contributions from local businesses. Systematic Logistics International has very kindly offered for the free use of its lorries for the floats. Likewise the Round Table is offering free participation for non-profit organistations, community groups and schools.

Which brings us round to exactly what is the point of a carnival in Colchester? You can see where the tradition in Rio de Janeiro and Notting Hill comes from, but in Britain’s Oldest Recorded Town?

Ah, ye ancient cynic - Colchester has a proud tradition of partying, with the Carnival being dormant for only a relatively short period of time. No one is claiming that Colchester can compete with the colour of Notting Hill, and I’m not sure that locally we even want to, either.

Nope - it should all be about the local. Yeah, it’s cheesy, but the Roman heritage is something to celebrate. We need floats full of local kids proud of their history and past. A generic samba beat and booty shaking procession may be fun (or maybe not) but it doesn’t speak to Colchester.

The mid-July timing is perfect for the schools. The kids will be sky high ahead of the six-week break, and this should be a day in which the town comes together before we all bugger off to Clacton for the summer break.

It’s a delicate balancing act that the Round Table has in asking for support from local businesses, the Council, and most important of all, the people of Colchester. Hopefully the enthusiasm can carry us through the summer, all the way through to the August Bank Holiday and the Colchester Free Festival.

Meh?

Yeah!