COWICK ROSE June 2011

Since being elected, the work up at Exonia Park continues.But the fact that they now have 2 councillors working alongside the Exonia Park Residents' Association appears to be paying dividends. So much so, we are both anxious to see this work rolled out to other Park Home sites across Exeter.

At last week's Scrutiny: Community committee meeting, Heather and I pushed for a Park Homes Residents' Forum to represent the views of Park Home owners in a similar way to the Tenants and Leaseholders Committee [TALC] does.

And we succeeded.

Anne Byrne followed this up with an article in today's Express & Echo.

EXETER housing bosses are to look into forming a forum for residents of mobile homes in the city.

The move follows pressure from Cowick councillor Heather Morris who has been working with residents of Exonia Park.

Cllr Morris said that she has been working hard in Cowick to help all residents but recognised early on that residents in park homes can have different problems.

She added: "Exeter City Council are the authority responsible for issuing the licence to park site owners, and therefore as a council we have a duty to ensure that the licences are not being breached.

"Given that the Residential Tribunal Service now has jurisdiction to deal with disputes between mobile home site occupiers and park site owners, it is time for the council to support residents in park homes."

Following the meeting, Cllr Morris said she was delighted that Councillor Rob Hannaford, the city's portfolio holder for housing and community involvement, had agreed to the setting up of the forum as she felt it would help residents understand their rights and help them to resolve matters.

She said: "It also sends a clear message to site owners that the council will not accept any breaches of site licences."

Cllr Hannaford said: "The park home developments in Cowick, Topsham and St Loyes already have their own residents' associations that deal with on-site issues.

"To assist and support these groups, the city council will convene and set up a new Park Homes Forum to help bring people together, discuss issues, give advice and ensure that site licences are not being breached. We already have similar meetings for council tenants and housing associations, so it is logical to extend this format to park homes.

"It's my intention that these meetings will also involve local city and county councillors, community police teams, housing and environmental health officers, and other agencies as agreed and suggested by the residents."

Lights on main road fixed but delay angers councill

A week ago the traffic signals at the First & Last failed. They were fixed FIVE days later after much traffic chaos during the peak travel times.

Cllr Heather Morris and I are still pushing for many questions to be answered.

The Express & Echo have joined us in this quest and this is today's contribution.

Lights on main road fixed but delay angers councillor

TRAFFIC lights at a busy junction have been repaired after being out of action for several days.

Devon County Council has confirmed that the signals have been "switched back on" but not before a number of concerns were raised by resident and city councillors.The problem developed at the junction of Buddle Lane and Cowick Street.

It is understood that all four sets of lights had failed.

Issues with the lights began on Friday, continued through the weekend and were still affecting traffic early this week.

A Devon County Council spokesman said: "We can confirm that the matter was resolved at 6pm on Tuesday night. Engineers had been working to fix the signals but this was delayed as spare parts had to be ordered from the contractor's central depot in Leicester.

A number of people expressed concerns about the delays in fixing the lights, including the city councillor for Cowick, Heather Morris, who said: "It was unacceptable that this well-used crossroads was out of action for so long and it showed little respect for the residents, school children and commuters in Exeter.

Cowick Street is one of the main routes in and out of Exeter and gets congested at busy times – even when the lights are fully functional.

Enjoyed reading the lead letter in today's Express & Echo as I travellled on the train to London - it was my contribution to to the continuing debate on the faulty traffic lights at the First & Last junction [where Cowick Street. Cowick Lane, Dunsford Road and Buddle Lane all converge].

The sorry saga of faulty traffic lights

I WOULD like to apologise to pedestrians and commuters for the disruption caused by the failure of traffic lights at the junction of Buddle Lane, Dunsford Road, Cowick Lane and Cowick Street at the outer edge of my Cowick ward (Children's 'lives at risk' after traffic lights go out, Express & Echo, 14 June ).

However, as an Exeter City Councillor it is not for me to apologise – the root problem needs to be laid firmly at the feet of Devon County Council.

Despite this, I have received many comments of concern from residents about the problem.

I believe that these traffic signals first failed on Friday, when I hope the self-diagnosis system reported the fault directly to the urban traffic control computer in County Hall.

I saw that these traffic signals were out of action on Saturday morning as I was carrying out a ward walk around Cowick.

At the time I was not unduly worried as there were signs indicating the lights were out of action and an engineer was on site trying to rectify the problem.

On Sunday, I received a copy of an email sent to the Highways Department looking after Exeter from my fellow councillor for Cowick, Cllr Heather Morris, indicating that the traffic lights were still out of action.

Mid morning on Tuesday I returned from another ward visit and wrote to the county council's Highways Operational Control Centre informing them that I was extremely concerned that the situation still persisted.

Also, there seemed to be little, if anything, happening to resolve the fault.

I understand that Devon County Council's policy on traffic management and traffic signals states that "serious faults will be attended within four hours and non-serious within 13 hours" and it goes on to say: "Portable traffic signals are used whenever there is a need to manage traffic whilst work is carried out..."

So what happened at this junction? Not four hours, not even 13 hours. Nearly five days! Why the delay?

I am led to believe that a part was specially driven down from the Midlands to rectify the fault. Again why the delay? And at what cost?

If the part had been ordered early on Monday, an overnight courier service would have guaranteed delivery before 10am for about £50.

At the time of writing both Cllr Morris and I are still awaiting a response from Devon County Council about this matter.

Cllr Paul Bull

Labour and Co-operative City Councillor for Cowick

0recommendations

Since being elected, the work up at Exonia Park continues. But the fact that they now have 2 councillors working alongside the Exonia Park Residents' Association appears to be paying dividends. So much so, we are both anxious to see this work rolled out to other Park Home sites across Exeter.

At last week's Scrutiny: Community committee meeting, Heather and I pushed for a Park Homes Residents' Forum to represent the views of Park Home owners in a similar way to the Tenants and Leaseholders Committee [TALC] does. And we succeeded.

Ann Byrne followed this up with an article in today's Express & Echo.

Chance to air views thanks to new forum

EXETER housing bosses are to look into forming a forum for residents of mobile homes in the city.

The move follows pressure from Cowick councillor Heather Morris who has been working with residents of Exonia Park.

Cllr Morris said that she has been working hard in Cowick to help all residents but recognised early on that residents in park homes can have different problems.

She added: "Exeter City Council are the authority responsible for issuing the licence to park site owners, and therefore as a council we have a duty to ensure that the licences are not being breached.

"Given that the Residential Tribunal Service now has jurisdiction to deal with disputes between mobile home site occupiers and park site owners, it is time for the council to support residents in park homes."

Following the meeting, Cllr Morris said she was delighted that Councillor Rob Hannaford, the city's portfolio holder for housing and community involvement, had agreed to the setting up of the forum as she felt it would help residents understand their rights and help them to resolve matters.

She said: "It also sends a clear message to site owners that the council will not accept any breaches of site licences."

Cllr Hannaford said: "The park home developments in Cowick, Topsham and St Loyes already have their own residents' associations that deal with on-site issues.

"To assist and support these groups, the city council will convene and set up a new Park Homes Forum to help bring people together, discuss issues, give advice and ensure that site licences are not being breached. We already have similar meetings for council tenants and housing associations, so it is logical to extend this format to park homes.

"It's my intention that these meetings will also involve local city and county councillors, community police teams, housing and environmental health officers, and other agencies as agreed and suggested by the residents."

Co-councillor Heather Morris is quoted in today's Express & Echo as the traffic signals at the First & Last were still not functioning until they were finally fixed at 18:00 yesterday evening.

I plan to keep asking questions - as it is important to get to the bottom of why this has taken so long to resolve.

Councillor sees red as lights problem goes on

ENGINEERS say they are working to repair faulty traffic lights at a busy Exeter junction "as soon as possible".

Concerns have been raised about the problem which has developed at the junction of Buddle Lane and Cowick Street. All four sets of lights had failed.

ssues with the lights began on Friday, continued through the weekend, and were still affecting traffic yesterday.

A Devon County Council spokesman said: "Engineers are working to fix the signals but they have so far been unable to fully resolve the problem.

"Some of the necessary spare parts are being ordered from the contractor's central depot in Leicester. The signals will be repaired as soon as possible."

But the county council's position was described as unacceptable by city councillor for Cowick Heather Morris.

She said: "I got a message to the county council on Sunday which clearly stated my concerns regarding the traffic lights and the severity of the problem, and that I hoped would have been resolved prior to Monday morning.

"It is unacceptable that this well-used crossroads is still out of action and I am awaiting an explanation.

"This shows little respect for the residents, school children and commuters in Exeter and no respect from Devon County Council towards Exeter city councillors."

Cowick Street is one of the main routes in and out of Exeter and gets congested at busy times – even when the lights are fully functional.

Cllr Morris added: "I am aware that a sign has been placed stating that the lights are not working but we need to be fully advised why they have been out of action for such a long time with clear advice on when they will be operational."

Her comments reflect the view of residents who have also spoken to the Echo.

Pensioner Terrence Bulley, 70, said he feared for the safety of pupils who were making their way to school.

He said: "My greatest concern was for the children on their way to the school. They were dicing with death because there was no way of telling which car was going to move."

It's now Tuesday and the traffic lights still aren't working at what is universally acknowledged as a busy junction. Why haven't Devon County Council arranged for temporary signals is this hotspot of chronic traffic congestion?

The Express & Echo has an article on the problem.

Children's lives 'at risk' after traffic lights go out

LIVES were put at risk because faulty traffic lights at a busy Exeter junction were not repaired immediately, a resident has claimed.

There was rush-hour chaos at the junction of Buddle Lane and Cowick Street yesterday, where all four sets of lights had gone out.

Pensioner Terrence Bulley said the problem happened on Friday, and should have been fixed on the same day.

Cowick Street is one of the main routes in and out of Exeter and gets congested at busy times – even when the lights are fully functional.

But Mr Bulley has said that for the last three days the lights were left off, and motorists have been left to work out who has right of way.

The 70-year-old resident of New Hayes, near Clyst St Mary, regularly drives to St Thomas to look after his grandchildren.

He said he feared for the safety of pupils who were making their way to school.

"When there is a fault on a junction as vital as that it is crucial it gets fixed immediately," he said.

"The authorities clearly knew about it because there were signs around the lights indicating that they were down, but there were no temporary lights in their place.

"My greatest concern was for the children on their way to the school, they were dicing with death because there was no way of telling which car was going to move."

The fault was one of a number in and around Exeter causing problems for motorists.

At Pinhoe, gas works on the B3181 are continuing with three-way temporary lights at the junction with Station Road and Church Hill.

Traders have complained the works, which are being carried out by Wales and West utilities, are affecting their business.

Also affecting the B3181 are works to improve the highway and drainage in Cullompton.

Contractors for Devon County Council started work in Fore Street on February 21 and are not expected to be complete until Friday, June 24 – two weeks later than scheduled.

County council contractors were repairing the lights at the Buddle Lane/Cowick Street junction yesterday. No one from the council was available for comment.

To and fro over traffic signals

On Saturday, on my way to Cowick for a walk around the ward, I noticed that the traffic lights at the end of Cowick Street were out of action. But not problem, I thought as there was an engineer busy fixing the problem.

No such luck, Heather Morris, my Cowick co-councillor, contacted the East Area Highways Management team of Devon County Council yesterday to find out what was happening here. To date she has had no response.

Today, I've been back in Cowick - and the traffic signals are out of action. On my return home I contacted the Highways Operational Control Centre [HOCC].

Since then there have been many e-mails to-ing and fro-ing to Devon County Council. Well mainly to-ing as some 8 hours later, I still heard nothing back.

Questions will be asked...

UK’s ‘most Conservative council’ to retain AWC

An article on the letsrecycle site has been brought to my attention - "UK's 'most Conservative council' to retain AWC" from 01 June 2011.

It states that Waverley Borough Council in Surrey, with 56 out of 57 [the other is an Independent. Indeed although the Lib Dems are listed on the Council website, there are none on the Council. Labour doesn't even warrant a mention!]] has pledged to defy Communities Secretary Eric Pickles over his call for a return to weekly waste collections. It intends to stand by its own alternate weekly system.

On the offer of £100 million funding to entice councils back to weekly bin collections, Mary Orton, chief executive of Waverley, said "It is the pseudo-micro-mangement of councils for a quick Daily mail headline. The amount of money [allegedly] on offer is nowhere near enough to even scratch the surface of getting councils to go back from forthnightly to weekly collections"

Waverley decided they wouldn't countenance the change due to £650,000-a-year savings under AWC and the additional capital costs in returning to weekly.

More Rubbish

Today's Sunday Telegraph has more on the debate about weekly collections of rubbish under the heading "Weekly bin collections killed off by Tory revolt".

Apparently, 46 authorities [including 37 Tory councils] have confirmed that they plan to keep forthnighly collections despite a bribe from Local Government Minister, Eric Pickles, to revert back to weekly waste collection.

And one of these councils is West Oxfordshire - where Prime Minister David Cameron has his constituency home.

Indeed, London's largest borough, Conservative-led Croyden, last week became the latest council to cut weekly rounds. Cabinet member for the environement, Phil Thomas, said "it will reduce landfill costs, making us more efficient for our customers, and improve our recycling rates. Those are CONSERVATIVE ideals."

Just over half of England's 326 councils now have forthnightly waste collections for unreyclable 'black bag' rubbish, including 10 who have switched since the Coalition came to power.

The article went on to say that Exeter City Council, which was severely criticised for its handling of winter bin collections by Bob Neill, the Local Government mi9nsiter, las week said the cost of returning to weekly collections in its area alone would be £1.7 millon [for the first year] and then £1 million every year [thereafter].

No return to weekly bin rounds

Today's Daily Mail admits that the Tories appear to have lost the battle to re-introduce weekly refuse collections with the headline "No return to weekly bin rounds".

After coming to power last may, the Coalition demanded the reinstatement of weekly services. Indeed Eric Pickles declared: "It's a basic right for every Englishman and woman to be able to put the remants of their chicken tikka masal in their bin without have to wait 2 weeks for it to be collected."

So the climb-down on this issue is another U-turn to add to the many of the Coalition promises abandoned since they came to power over a year ago.

Scrutiny - Community Committee

So here we are - the cut and thrust of Committee meetings.

My first on was today - Scrutiny - Community.

Back in January, this Scrutiny Committee asked officers for a report on the cost of returning to a weekly waste collection. This was asked for by Tory Cllr John Winterbottom, who no longer sits on this committee.

It appears that he is still the best brain to present the case for the opposition as he was allowed to introduce the debate under Standing Order 44.

Much discussiion ensued including my contribution - as follows:

In respect of this, why are we listening to the VOCAL MINORITY who want a return to weekly rubbish collections. I want to speak up for the SILENT MAJORITY.

When campaigning in Cowick [especially at the height of the furore over the early january period] almost everyone welcomed the fortnightly collection. maybe a handful of people wished to revert to weekly collections.

Cllr Crow recently did a well-published stint with the refuse collection team - and in all her reports in various bits of media [e.g. E&E 03 June 2011, "Councillor calls for weekly bin rounds"], she mentioned that within 2 days black bin ags were appearing in the back alleys.

Back in January, the Chair convened a Special meeting of this Committee [I was one of 3 people not a councillor sitting in the public gallery at what one of the others there referred to as "the best show in town tonight"] and heard clearly what Robert Norley had to say in his excellent report [appended to the printed minutes]

On the constraints, he said: " The Council is a waste collection authority, and its role is to collect household waste from homes, which presented for collection in the right place, at the right time and in the right receptacle."

Clearly what Cllr Crow saw was one out of three conditions met.

In the same vein, I ask why the press and other media are so interested in the BAD news regarding rubbish collection. They only seem to be interested when it goes wrong. over the extended Easter break it all went so well - but where was the news in the national media?

I'm much more interested in the GOOD news. The good news when recycling rates are up, giving us an income of over £1million from selling recyclets and gaining recycling credits along with the reduction in landfill tax.

All this is achieved by the Alternate Weekly Collect [AWC] - collecting recyclables from the green bin one week, and waste from the grey bin the next.

Using reseach from BusinessGreen, [James Murry "Greenest Government Ever - Has no-one told Eric Pickles?" 01 June 2011] I've read a recent report by WYC Environment ["Review of Kerbside Recycling Collections Schemes in the UK in 2009/10] which found that the vast majority of the top 30 recycling councils, and all of the top 10, use AWC, whuile repeated reports have shown that the more residual rubbish collection you provide, the more garbage people throw out.

And there is [anecdotal] evidence to suggest that those few Conservative councils that have moved back to weekly collections after trailing AWC have seen recycling rates stall, or fall again.

I want to see our recycling rates conitnue to rise..and that's why I will continue to support AWC."

The Tory motion was rejected, especially when my speech helped convince Lib Dem Cllr Sheila Hobden of the continued success of AWC. She said returning to weekly waste collection would be "a retrograde step".

Much else was discussed in a long, long meeting. And I had to return to work up at the Exeter Northcott at the conclusion of the meeting at 21:15.