Street Surgery Saturday 6th July - Shop Local Special

Police Warning

Late yesterday evening I received the following Police warning in my inbox for residents in Shoebury which I thought I would share:

"The Policing Wards of Southchurch, Thorpe Bay and Shoebury are being targeted by youths on bmx type cycles out overnight who are breaking in to motor vehicles and vans by means unknown and committing thefts from motor vehicles. Most of the items stolen are easily sold on, e.g. electrical equipment such as Sat Navs, Ipads, phones etc., and even items like loose change, CD’s, sunglasses, spectacles and clothing are being taken.

Drivers are advised to “Lock it or Lose it”, and to empty vehicles entirely of any items on display that would encourage these youths from breaking into cars.  Leaving an empty glove compartment has also been encouraged as these youths have been breaking in and making a messy search of glove compartment to vehicles that have nothing on display.

If you are out and about during the early hours and see any youths in our areas on cycles, please call the incident room on 101 and advise the control room of their location and direction of travel and include description of youths and clothing if possible. If you happen to see anyone actually breaking into a car, please call 999 immediately".

The full message can be found here.

Southend Cricket Festival

After my Community Speed Watch training, I was delighted to support the Mayor at the Southend Cricket Festival at Garon Park in which the Middlesex Panthers defeated the Unicorns in a Yorkshire Bank 40 game.

The first Southend Cricket Festival started in 1906 at Southchurch Park and Chalkwell Park until the last festival in 2004. Since 2005, the Southend Cricket Festival has been staged at Garon Park.

In 2011, Essex County Cricket Club decided to scrap the Southend festival and play all their cricket in Chelmsford and Colchester.

For this reason, Southend Cricket Festival Ltd was formed and in 2012, secured two CB40 matches hosting  Unicorns games against Sussex Sharks and Kent Spitfires. This year, the Southend Cricket Festival hosted Unicorns games against  the Glamorgan Dragons and Middlesex Panthers.

Due to a re-organisation in English County Cricket, the Unicorns will be disbanded which puts the continuation of the Southend Cricket Festival in some jeopardy. Whilst we have been delighted to adopt the Unicorns at the last to Cricket Festivals and continue to have first class cricket played in Southend we do need to has Essex games return to Southend.

I am delighted that the organisers are working with Essex CCC representatives to bring a T20 game to Southend. You could help bring Essex CCC back to Southend by writing to the the Essex CCC committee urging that the club reconsiders their 2011 decision and help keep a piece of history in Southend alive.

Community Speed Watch

This morning, I joined a number of councillors and Shoeburyness residents received training so we can participate in the Community Speed Watch scheme.

Community Speed Watch is a traffic monitoring scheme that is co-ordinated by the police but managed and run by volunteers in the community.

The beauty of Community Speed Watch over mobile Police speed traps is that if a vehicle is caught speeding the driver receives a warning letter through the post warning them rather than getting three points on their licence and a fixed penalty fine.

After my initial training, my first session was in Maplin Way North - a road which is constantly mentioned to me by residents as an area which is notorious for speeding motorists. It quickly became apparent that the road is very busy even on a Sunday.

There were a handful of motorists which were clocked doing speeds in excess of 36mph. We will continue to do further sessions in Maplin Way and other hotspots identified at the Shoeburyness Police Neighbourhood Action Panel.

If we regularly catch motorists speeding, all this information will be fed back to the Police who will then hopefully, take more firmer action.

Reporting Back - June Edition

Number Crunching

My week in numbers:

529 letters, emails and telephone calls received on council related matters
6 meetings attended
1 radio interview
7 new items of residents casework solved
400 newsletters delivered to residents
915 visitors to this blog according to google

Let Britain Decide

On the 5th July, Stockton South Conservative MP James Wharton will introduce his Private Members Bill, the EU Referendum Bill, to Parliament. This EU Referendum Bill could give us the first vote on the EU in over 40 years, after a renegotiation for a new deal in the EU. It is historic.

Sadly, Labour and the Liberal Democrats don’t want to give people a say. Europe has changed. It’s been 40 years since the British people last had their say. We deserve a full renegotiation, and then a vote, so Britain can decide.

This isn't just a Conservative campaign - it's for everyone who believes we need a say. We need to build a lot of public pressure quickly as the parties that oppose this vote will only change their minds if enough people demand the right to have their say.

We need to see what kind of EU results from the ongoing Eurozone crisis and then have a full renegotiation and a vote, so Britain can decide. That’s why I have joined the fight and backed the plan to:

a) Bring powers back from Europe.

b) Give the British people a vote, by 2017.

Fundamentally, this is about democracy and trusting people. No if's, no buts. Just a proper renegotiation, then a vote on whether Britain should be IN or OUT of the EU. Whether you love the EU or, like me, hate it, we need a referendum to settle this question. We also need a renegotiation, so we know exactly what kind of Europe we are voting on.

If we win, it would be historic. We are closer to a referendum than we’ve been in the last 40 years. That’s why this is urgent and only have a small window of opportunity to persuade the other parties to back him. You can join the fight by co-sponsoring the bill here. For further information, visit the Let Britain Decide website.

Shop Local Month

This morning, I was delighted to see new planters being installed in West Road. This has been made possible following the successful awarding of a £2,500 grant to the West Road Community & Traders Association (WRCTA) from the Community Development Foundation.

Along with my colleague Cllr Hadley, we were only happy to assist the WRCTA in helping them with the application for the grant bid and also their application in becoming a Charitable Trust.

We also took the opportunity to launch the Shop Local Month which Shoebury Conservatives are promoting in conjunction with the WRCTA. Local shops are valuable to local communities and want to encourage residents to shop locally where possible.

From the 6th July-6th August, participating shops displaying the shop local symbol, will be giving customers a 5% discount when they present a voucher when purchasing goods. Over the next two weeks, residents in West Shoebury will be receiving the following letter informing them how they can participate.



Non West Shoebury residents can also participate by downloading a voucher here.

The Shoeburyness Hypocrite Strikes Again

Whilst I was away on a family holiday it was good to see that my favourite little hypocrite Cllr Anne Chalk was busy writing to the local press criticising local Conservatives for asking residents in the flood plain what their views were on the proposed Shoebury Common flood defences.

Anne suggests that a survey of this nature should have been independently conducted with all interested parties involved. This is interesting considering that Anne has recently conducted her own survey on the Sainsbury's application for a local store in the Garrison, which surprise, surprise was not conducted by an independent organisation.

Before Anne predictably says that she can conduct these surveys as she is an Independent, lets remin ourselves that she is about as independent as Tibet and regularly attends local Labour Party campaign fundraising events whilst elected as an 'Independent' councillor.

Farewell Pat Rayner

I cut short a family holiday to attend the funeral of former Shoeburyness councillor Pat Rayner who passed away on the 3rd June. Not only did I lose a colleague and stalwart of the local party - I lost a friend. The service, simple but dignified, how Pat had requested was a fitting tribute to Pat.

Although her health was deteriorating, up to her death she was still attending local branch meetings and helping with the preparation of our leaflets. Farewell Pat, you will now be reunited with Frank and Allan who I know you missed dearly.