April 2013 Status Report

2012 AGMs of the Old Wivenhoe Quay Estate Management Company (OWEM) and the Wivenhoe Old Quay Residents’ Association (WOQRA)

The AGMs were held on the 19th March 2013 in the Wivenhoe Royal British Legion hall. At the meeting we distributed the WOQRA 2012 Annual Report. The meeting was attended by about 20 households–minutes are available for the WOQRA AGM.

Wivenhoe Neighbourhood Plan Forum

We have been asked by Wivenhoe Town Council to bring to residents’ attention the inauguration of a Wivenhoe Neighbourhood Plan Forum, more details of which are available on the Wivenhoe Town Council website. The next meeting will be held at Wivenhoe Town Council Offices at 1930 hrs on Wednesday 10^th April 2013, to which all residents are invited.

3rd April 2013

Road Surfacing Schedule

We have received the schedule from TDS, Persimmon’s consultants (who are managing the road surfacing works). These dates are subject to change according unforeseen issues that arise during the works, weather and parked cars, etc. Please be aware that large vehicles, including delivery lorries, may find it impossible to access the site during days when the roads are being surfaced.

Work underway in Admirals’ Walk

Admirals’ Walk

As many of you will have seen, work has already begun on replacing kerbs and raising ironworks. This will be followed by works to repair the footpaths, finishing on the 23rd August. The road is due to be surfaced on the 6th September. Note that this is likely to have an impact on access to homes on the Bovis development.

Meredith’s Close

Work is due to start on the kerbs in the 14th August, followed by raising of ironworks and repairs to footpaths, finishing on the 23rd August. The road is due to be surfaced on the same day as Admirals’ Walk, the 6th September. As indicated above, the surfacing work may have an impact on access to homes on the Bovis site.

Shipwrights

Work is due to start on the kerbs on the 24th August, followed by the raising of ironworks and repairs to the footpaths. The surfacing work will take place on the 6th September (the same day as Admirals’ Walk and Meredith’s Close). Note that this work is likely to restrict access to Dry Dock and the flats facing West Quay.

Old Ferry Road

Work is due to start on the kerbs on the 6th September, followed by the raising of ironworks and footpath repairs. The road is due to be surfaced on the 28th September, potentially causing significant access restrictions.

Road Surfacing Update

Road Surfacing Update, Summer 2012

Work to resurface the roads on the Persimmon estate have been confirmed as ‘starting week commencing the 6^th August’ according to TDS, Persimmon’s consultants managing the works. We have asked for a formal programme of works from TDS, which we hope to receive soon. However, informally, we understand that the ‘estimated duration of the work is approx 10 weeks which is obviously dependant on weather’ with the majority of the disruption taking place at the end of the works.

Blue Dots on Damaged Kerbs

We understand that the initial works will include repair/replacement of kerb stones (as indicated by blue dots), the installation of dropped kerbs and repairs to pavements, as well as the raising of ironworks (such as drain covers).

Based on the conversations we had with TDS during their recent pre-start visit, we expect access to the site to be restricted to only residents’ vehicles for at least a couple of days when the roads are actually being surfaced. This will mainly have an impact on vehicles who enter the site via Old Ferry Road, but will also affect those who use Shipwrights. This means that larger vehicles, such as delivery lorries, will not be able to access the site during these road restrictions. As soon as we have more information on the dates, we will let residents know. We have also requested TDS to inform residents directly.

We have no further news on parking restrictions, other than the information that Persimmon themselves are not responsible for painting yellow lines. We are currently waiting for more information from Essex Country Highways regarding the process of road adoption for the site.

Summer 2012 Status Report

Road Surfacing

Great news: Persimmon have finally given the go-ahead to surface the roads. After much pestering we were told in late June that the work would start later this summer (despite being assured in January this year that the work would start in “8-12 weeks”). Persimmon have issued orders to their subcontractors and are planning a pre-start meeting on site: if anyone is interested in attending please get in touch with the Residents’ Association Secretary, Bernard Horan (or leave comment using the button below).

Dry Dock Water Feature

The wrong kind of algae

Although the summer weather has been cold and there has been little sunshine, the algae in the water feature continues to defeat the mechanisms attempting to control it. Apparently, it’s the ‘wrong kind of algae.’ We understand that samples of the water are being taken at monthly intervals to try to determine the species/variety of algae, with the intention of trying to discover how it can be eradicated.

30th June 2012

April 2012 Status Report

2011 AGMs of the Old Wivenhoe Quay Estate Management Company (OWEM) and the Wivenhoe Old Quay Residents’ Association (WOQRA)

The AGMs were held on the 6th March in the Wivenhoe Congregational Church. At the meeting we distributed 2011 annual reports of OWEM and WOQRA. The meeting was attended by about 20 households–minutes are available for both the OWEM and WOQRA meetings.

Update from Persimmon

Persimmon are currently waiting on Essex County Council (ECC) to agree to adopt the roads even though Anglian Water have yet to adopt the surface water sewers. Persimmon estimate that ECC will respond by the end of April, at which point Persimmon plan to ‘commence the highway remedial works’, i.e. finally surface the roads.

Rowhedge Wharf Development

Thanks to Cllr Mike Lilley (via Cyril Liddy) for providing us with the following update: there appears to be no progress with the Rowhedge development, it seems the developers may be waiting for the new planning laws to come into effect.

3rd April 2012

Wivenhoe Community Day of Action

Colchester Borough Council is organising a “Community Day of Action” (CDOA) along the same lines as the one in Harbour Ward earlier this year. We’ve been told that the event will take place on Thursday 24th November 2011 and will be “another high impact, multi agency event to include an extensive clean up campaign, joint enforcement operations and community/youth engagement.”

The event will be preceded by a two-day public consultation taking place on the 26th and 27th October. The format of the consultation will be “ door knocking (usually in pairs) in an allocated street/location to complete a short survey with those residents that are at home to establish the issues (if any) that may be affecting their quality of life, and leaflet drop to those households where no-one is available/at home advising them that the CDOA will be taking place.”

If any residents would like to help out with the door knocking or find out more information about the event, contact Sonia Carr at Colchester Borough Council.

Water Feature status Summer 2011

In October 2010, the Dry Dock water feature was emptied with the intent of spending a couple of days maintenance and adding an extra ultrasonic unit to control algae.

Following the discovery of several problems, including the mis-siting of a drain, the water feature wasn’t refilled until May 2011. Since then the colour of the water has varied between deep green and brown. This has been partly due to a couple of power outages from which the pump room didn’t restart. However, we remain concerned that the algae control is still ineffective. We hope that the water will now clear and that the new control mechanisms prove to be more effective.