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We’ve had a small victory in our campaign to get the gully’s cleared in the village. Cllr Mike Lawrence e-mailed me with this press release today:”RELEASE.
Flooding
Highways
I am pleased that tomorrow we will be announcing a priority circa £300k spend on ‘Gully’ clearing/cleaning and inspection with a specialist contractor before the winter takes its grip upon us.
This very wet summer has had a huge impact upon our Highway drainage with gravel and other debris constantly being swept into the Gullies on our roads, blocking them and causing water to lie in large pools.
Our Highway teams, as well as getting on in this summer season with the road reconstruction programme where we have invested the extra £50M, have been battling the elements hurrying from one problem to the next to keep our roads as safe as possible – our first priority. The constant attrition of roadsides being continually wet has also meant that the Gullies and connecting pipe work have taken unusual amounts of material and our normal Gully cleaning programme is swamped.
So to tackle this root problem we are going to address it head on with extra resource. By doing this now it will also help our road maintenance programme for next year by taking away the lying water and therefore its effect on the Highways – one of the most damaging elements to our roads.
In addition I will be writing to the District Councils who keep the roads swept asking them to not cut back in this time of financial constraint, on their street cleaning programme during the winter, as this will acerbate the problem and no matter how much we dig out and clean the drainage system, if the torrential rain continues then the Gullies we have cleared will be blocked again in a very short time.
I am also asking Members to help with this cleaning programme by indentifying the problem areas in their Division to ensure we go to those first. The Highways team will be producing a programme for this work and they will share it with you so you can see if these problems areas have been picked up.
In addition to the direct impact of the flooding, the waters hydraulic action causes damage to road surfaces and edges, this has led to twice the number of defects than normal over the spring and summer. So we are taking this action now because of the need to ensure that we are clear of standing water issues before a possible freeze sets in, as it will cause much more damage to the Highway, as well as be a dangerous hazard to road safety.
Surface Water Issues
Flooding is a very complex issue involving Landowners, the Environment Agency with rivers, Water Authorities (Severn Trent etc) and others. Our role at the County is to co-ordinate with these organisations to minimise the impact of flooding. We have only just assumed this responsibility since the Government endorsement of the Pitt report on the 2007 floods and gave us extra powers as a County Council in 2012.
Currently we are recruiting specialist Officers with environmental experience to join the Commissioner for the Sustainable Environment’s team and hope we will have them in place by November at the latest. These people will join Matt Bulzacchelli our Flood Manager, to work with our Communities tackling the flooding issues.
Shortly we will have a say in planning that will ensure that future developments are not built in high risk surface water flood areas and /or have the capacity to deal with surface water run off. However we still have to deal with the legacy of the past and the team once in place will be taking the lead to try and assist with current problems and engaging with those communities along with partners, such as the Environment Agency, Severn Trent, District & Parish Councils, as well as the effected Residents themselves.
This year we will also spend approximately £200k on asset surveys within some our known flood risk areas. This information will provide valuable feedback on the condition of the highway drainage systems and how they are likely to perform during periods of flood to help us with our planning.
END OF RELEASE.”
The recent floods may have been a one in fifty year event but I believe some of the effects could have been averted if Staffordshire Highways regularly cleaned out the gulleys in the village.
Yesterday I walked along Wolverhampton Road following a short but heavy downpour and found the road partially flooded again as two of the key gulleys were still blocked despite reporting the fact to them two weeks ago. With the weather patterns being very unstable at the moment, the ability to shift water off the road efficiently is vital to prevent further flooding of homes.
We all pay our taxes to the council, surely we deserve better?
In the Spring 2012 issue of the South Staffs Review there was a big write up about plans for a new cemetery, on land off Strawberry Lane and Upper Landywood Lane, which has been gifted to the Council for the purpose.
Action 4 Essington posted an article about the plans for the new Upper Landywood Lane project in February 2012.
Now, on 19th June, another application has gone in for a further proposed cemetery on land off Bursnips Road. (A previous application made in September 2011 for the same tract of agricultural land was withdrawn)
One cemetery might be a welcome amenity for Essington. Two cemeteries sounds like these folks are expecting an awful lot of deaths in our small community!
For further details about the new Bursnips Lane proposal click on this link: Application No: 12/00510/COU
Supporters of the Elmwood Avenue Action Group are very happy to know that the planning application made by Bellway Construction for more houses in Elmwood Avenue has been refused.
Full details of can be found on South Staffs District Council Website at Application No: 11/00929/FUL
Some good news at last in the fight to preserve Essington’s greenbelt land!
Elmwood Avenue Proposed Development Map
Firstly, many congratulations to the 978 Essington residents who decided to go and vote, WHICHEVER WAY YOU VOTED.
According to Essington Parish Council this represents a 24.6% turnout. So, of course, that means that 75.4% of Essington residents did not vote.
Some may have been away from home, some may have been on working shifts that prevented them from turning up between 4pm and 10pm on the day. For the elderly and infirm the lack of a postal vote (election rules are inflexible on this) may have robbed them of the chance to make their choice.
But let’s face the depressing truth. Well over HALF of our people COULD NOT BE BOTHERED. While we are on the subject, a badly worded Parish Council leaflet does NOT a voting decision make. The only choice you CAN make is through the Ballot Box.
The leaflet was pointing out South Staffs Council’s ‘default’ position which is in favour of a Transfer Station. If read properly, the leaflet was clearly saying go and CHOOSE your position on the issue by voting, so that Essington Parish Council could know what Essington residents preferred to see on the Hobnock Road site.
807 people preferred Housing, 171 people preferred a Transfer Station. Those people CHOSE what they wanted by turning up to vote. So Essington Parish Council has decided to abide by the majority vote and support the housing option. This is the only fair conclusion to make.
Those who didn’t vote have opted out of the decision making process so they can only be considered to be NEUTRAL. They don’t CARE, one way or the other, and so cannot be taken into consideration. NO VOTE, NO CHOICE MADE
Once again, to those who did vote, thank you for deciding to be a part of the Essington community. Thank you for caring.
This is possibly the most important question that has ever been put to the people of Essington.
It’s a bit of a stark choice: given that there may be housing or a bottom ash storage depot, do you prefer housing ‘yes’ or ‘no’. There is no middle road.
This is much more than a vote, this is a question of whether residents care enough to vote at all. We will be judged on the size of the turnout as well as on our voting decision.
Please, each and every one of you, take the time to go to the polling station and register your decision. What ends up being built in Essington depends on you!!
Read the two circulars that have been posted through your letterboxes across Essington this week, decide what you want to see built on the Hobnock Road Brickworks Site, then go and vote tomorrow. It’s that simple!!
This Thursday sees a ballot taking place to decide the future of the old Brickworks. The options are for a bottom ash incinerator with the attendant disruption or 200 houses.
Whatever you think is best, and lest face it there isn’t a lot of choice, make sure you have your democratic say and pass it on to others.
More details can be found on the Parish Councils website. The polling station is open between 4.00 and 9.00 pm. It’s important to vote at the Community Centre so please pass the word around.
The Annual Essington Parish meeting has not seen such a high attendance for many a long year. The hall was filled with residents and there was just one item on the agenda. A proposed bottom ash storage facility (B8 use) at the old Brickworks Site in Hobnock Road.
Councillor Clifft, Chairman of Essington Parish Council, stated two applications for planning permission were due in from the developers of the site some time this month. One for B8 (bottom ash storage) and one for the housing development that the Parish Council have been working so hard towards with the developers for some time.
We can’t have a ‘do nothing’ approach to the site. Residents have to get behind the housing development one hundred percent if we are to have a chance of heading off the B8 use application.
The upshot of the meeting is that there is shortly to be an official poll of residents asking them if they would prefer the housing development, yes or no. The precise wording of the poll will be published when legal eagles have taken a look at it.
South Staffordshire District Councillor, Wayne Whitehouse, opened up a can of worms for us when he opened his mouth without engaging his brain and saddled Essington residents with the possibility of a Bottom Ash Storage Site (B8 use) on the Old Brickworks site. Obviously he was steered in that direction by the faceless mandarins at Staffordshire District Council who favour the site for the dumping of bottom ash that will be generated by the Four Ashes incinerator.
Once again Essington is the prime target. Perhaps South Staffs planning officers don’t like our village or think it is far enough away from places such as Codsall, Wombourne, Kinver and the like so they won’t have to see the results of their conniving.
Essington Parish Councillors took District Councillor Whitehouse to task over the issue and there was a unanimous vote of ‘no confidence’ against him. That doesn’t change the fact that the ‘cat is out of the bag’ now with regard to possible B8 use on the site. We can only try to go forward as a community and take actions to stop this, if we can.
As Councillor Clifft pointed out, perhaps Essington will be the first to test the new ’Localism’ planning bill that has just gone through Parliament which states that residents must be consulted and have a big say in what they want to see happen in their community.
When the polling card drops through your letterbox use your vote or lose the fight to keep Essington a village rather than an industrial wasteland.
