Residents of Castle ward! Your patch has a castle apparently! [although that didn't stop a high-ranking member of the Colchester Borough Council Cabinet from claiming that there isn't a castle in Castle ward at a recent CBC Full Council meet. STORM the barricades, etc.]
As well as a castle, it seems that the central political patch *possibly* also has parking problems, fly tipping and dog pooh.
Y’see – that’s what happens when you go and build a bloody great BIG castle right in the middle of a public park. How the chuffers did it ever get planning permission?
Which brings us back to the parking, fly tipping and dog pooh. Our friends from CBC are carrying on with the ward roadshow, landing slap in bang in the centre on Sunny Colch on 29th November with the latest Community Day of Action.
This is the local government equivalent of Challenge Aneka (ask yer Dad) meets the Radio 1 Roadshow. Priority areas are identified; gurning folk with clipboards try their best not to scare the locals.
It’s all actually an incredibly worthy exercise that does lead to genuine results. But to help CBC plan the Castle ward Day of Action, residents are being asked first what the priorities are ahead of the big blitz day at the end of next month.
…a signpost for the castle for any high-ranking members of the CBC Cabinet that are in castle denial mode, maybe?
There’s a handy online check box over here.
Areas covered include:
Parking
Drugs
Lighting
Vandalism
Speeding
Fly Tipping
Anti-Social Behaviour
Litter
Dog Fouling
Overgrown Trees
Graffiti and
Others [Wot No Castle?]
Talk about accentuating the positives, etc.
But the clipboard wielding town planners need to know where to focus efforts. Residents have until this Friday to prioritise the action on the, um, Day of Action.
What happens next is that CBC works with associated agencies [URGH] and basically blitz the ward, allocating resources where the residents feel are most needed. It all works incredibly well – Wivenhoe benefitted from the same scheme by having graffiti and parking issues addressed.
If you’re not online (then you’re probably not reading this twaddle…) then no worries. The CBC doorknockers will be knocking you up over the coming days to carry out the consultation.
Just tell that An Englishman’s Home is His Castle, etc.
One Comment
What a dreadful list. Drugs are clearly a problem along North Station Road, it’s well known for having drug dealers on the street corners and they are hardly subtle about it. The dealers are the guys in the big coats standing on street corners eagerly eyeing up anyone that walks past in case they’re a potential customer.
Quite how ticking a box saying drugs and giving a postcode is going to help, I don’t know.
My confidence is boosted by the reassuring knowledge that TV license evaders are on the to do list, mind.