WELCOM Forum Meeting, Thursday 26th September
Present: Brian Martin in the Chair, Marian & Bob Kuyper, Frank Harrington, Natalie Szabo, Mark Williamson, Renae Laybourn, Terry Morris, Julie Morrissey,
Mike Le-Surf, John Connolly, Roy Garwood, Johnson Evans, Jackie Melhuish, Paul Robinson, Chris & Kim Ford, Gary Warren, Joe Blandy, Gordon Stevens, Ken Hayward, Kirsty Ireland, Liam Judd, Paula Knowles, Rose Phillips, Cynthia Adams, Daphne Harvey, Renata Gully, Alan & Susan Whiter, Mark Brown, Steve Swinney. John Purkiss
Apologies Barry Palmer
Brian welcomed the new attendees and explained the forum is an open meeting for members of the community who try to act for the best of the residents and to maintain and improve the area. The Minutes of the last meeting were approved and signed.
MATTERS ARISING
Mike Le-surf along with Angela Smith our previous MP had attended another meeting with DP World this time regarding the issue between DP World and the Unions. Mike had put our questions to DP World when he first met with them, which can be found as an attachment to the previous minutes. Basically the port has been built to take the biggest tankers that have been built. Tilbury or Felixstowe could not take tankers this big and to date not many have been built. DP World stipulated that what happened outside their boundaries i.e. level crossing at East Tilbury, traffic movements, Marks and Spencer business park etc was outside their control. They are rightly proud of the Port and would be very willing to meet with us at the Port to give us a presentation. There have not been many of these giant tankers built and probably no more would be built until the world economy picks up. The port had been built at the peak of a cycle. Mike will email details to Marian to arrange a visit.
ESSEX WILDLIFE
The Centre now has new leaflets which were distributed to all. There will be Halloween activities in the half term. On 20th October there will be a walk from Muckingford to Chafford Gorge a distance of 10 miles with a medal on completion. Wednesday 30th Octber is Owl Night and this Saturday 28th September is an Astronomy Night. There will also be Christmas Markets with stalls costing £5.00 on 17th November and 15th December. If you just wanted an information table then this would be free and Renae invited the Forum and Church to participate. EWT are also hoping to organise Trans Vol who are wheelchair friendly, to run a bus service to the centre but this would need funding, volunteers are still being sought. Renae then introduced Terry Morris (Tez) the new senior Warden for the park. Lisa Smart had emailed a list of trees that needed attention at Linford Woods to which no one objected to (see attached). Mark and John asked if they could be present when the work was carried out and Steve Swinney asked how long the work would take. Tez replied that the work would take one day and if anyone would like to see willow coppicing in practice then he would arrange for them to visit Belfries Park so they could see the benefits. This work would not affect any of the wildlife in the woods, John Connolly said he had been asking for this work to be done for some years now. Discussion took place as to the fishing rights of Golden Gate, Cory had been invited to the meeting but had declined saying that any decision regarding this would be down to EWT after a phased handover of this part of the site. Hopefully this will be next June or July, in the meantime bailiffs are employed some of the time but also fish at the pond counting the fish. John Purkiss had met with Kevin Colby of Cory and hopefully at this time the residents of East Tilbury and Linford will be able to access the park from footpath 147. Kirsty asked to be kept up to date regarding the fishing as she had been having problems with people parking at Walton Hall Farm and then going fishing in the lakes.
Steve Swinney has applied to join the board of Trustees for Thameside Nature Park please see attachment as to an outline of the work carried out by them.
Chris Ford asked why there was still no signage anywhere regarding the park and was assured that it would be going up very soon.
Mark Williamson said it had been asked on your east Tilbury how legal is the agreement regarding the fishing lakes, could Cory back out of it. It was reinforced again that EssexWildlife will eventually be taking over the running of golden gate lakes. It will go out for tender as to who can use it but it will not only be for fishing there will be bird watchingopportunities, not hides but a platform going out onto the lake. There would hopefully be disabled access to the lake as well. Cynthia asked if there were any plans to tarmac the main road to the visitors centre as she has a disabled friend who couldn’t get his mobility scooter up the main road due to the pot holes. Tez replied that there were no plans to do this but the road was being rolled every day to make it smoother perhaps the footpath would be a better option although the gates would be difficult to get through. Hopefully Trans Vol will be running a service to the park and they are wheelchair friendly. There is now a mixed herd of 19 cows and they will be on site until November. Mark asked if Nick Lay had permission to take photos at the heronry the answer was NO. Bob asked who owned Linford Woods John Connolly thought it was the council. Tez read out a report from Beckie Beresford, education officer at the park, copy attached.
POLICE REPORT
ABH 3, Assault without injury 2, Burglary Dwelling 3, Burglary other 1, Criminal Damage Vehicle 1, Harassment 1, Public Order Act 3, Theft 4, Theft other 1.
Apparently 07 Fiestas and new transit vans are being targeted by thieves. One burglar was caught red handed with his hands and pockets full of jewellery inside the house he had broken into. Unfortunately he had worn gloves for all the other break ins he had done so the police couldn’t charge him with those. There was a road traffic accident in east Tilbury road outside the church on Monday no one was hurt but one woman was badly shaken up so Paula escorted her back to East Tilbury. Whilst she was there the helicopter that had been reported previously landed in the field behind the Fairview estate. Police were already attending the scene but resident were rightly very angry as this was dangerous for children who played in the field. Apparently the pilot flies over from Kent to visit friends and he only has 72 hours of flying time. When he saw the police he tried taking off again just skimming over the bushes and house tops. Paula has been in touch with the CAA and they have assured her this man will be losing his licence. It was pointed out that there were severe restrictions for shot gun use and helicopters were a lot more dangerous. The matter of the yellow van was again raised, although the accident on Monday was not caused by the yellow van. The police had asked the yellow van owner to park in the church car park while the accident was being cleared. It was again stated that unfortunately the church car park was not and could not be available for public use. There was a complaint about Church Members parking on the main road on a Sunday. This was due to a Baptism at the Church and Marian apologised and said in future if we had visitors from outside the area she would ask them to use the car park. Due to the yellow lines by the school parents have been advised to park on the factory side of the road, unfortunately there are very faded yellow lines here as well. As there are plans for a new housing development here the land owners are asking for people not to park there and that the faded yellow lines should be reinstated. Paula will talk to the parking enforcement officer to see if common sense could prevail.
SPORTS HALL
Daphne now has access to the defibrillator and has met the new head teacher who seems very nice and will be happy to work with her.
FUN DAY
Discussion took place regarding another Fun Day. Most present thought it was a very worthwhile day and should be repeated. It was better moving it from June to July but unfortunate that it clashed with Linford Wanderers Sports weekend and a football tournament at St. Cleres. Marian said it should only go ahead if we had more involvement from all the schools and new people coming forward to organise the day perhaps as many as 20. It was suggested that Joe Blandy ask on “Your East Tilbury” if people would be willing to come forward. Brian Martin said he had been very impressed with the Fun Run held at Horndon on the Hill on the Feast and Fayre weekend, perhaps we could do something like that.
AROUND THE TABLE & ANY OTHER BUSINESS
East Tilbury – Coal House Fort is going ahead with its Halloween Night ghost walk.
Linford – Frank Harrington asked if Linford would be getting broadband infinity in the near future. Bob said he had email confirmation that it was imminent but no fixed date.
St. Francis hall is now a distribution centre for Thurrock Foodbank every Thursday. Chris Ford also mentioned that there is the possibility of the Foodbank receiving significant cash from Lloyds bank’s “community” fund if enough people vote for it. The easiest way to vote is to text VOTE MJSC to 61119 or visit the TSB site at to vote for Thurrock Foodbank. Offer closes on November 1st. Pam Painter advertised the Church Cake Sale at St. Francis Linford on 19th October
John Purkiss asked if we would like to have an Enforcement Officer from Thurrock Council Planning Office to come and talk to us regarding the various problems in the area.
Several members had noticed that our old street cleaner, who was excellent, had been replaced and could we have him back please! Dog Bins in Frome were in need of being emptied. There has also been a lot of dog fouling at the footpath opposite the Ship Pub and also on a private piece of land in East Tilbury. John Purkiss reported that so far there had not been a planning application received for the Bata Mews project. Kirsty Ireland the new owner of Walton Hall Farm reported that the land surrounding the farm had now been purchased by a Mineral Extraction Company. There was also an on-going feasibility study regarding the 374 bus route to see if it was possible for it to go down Walton Hall Lane stopping at Walton Hall Farm and the entrance to Thameside Nature Park. There has been fly tipping down Low Street but as it is on Cole’s farm land it is their responsibility to clear it away. Scramble bikes still keep going to the old Tarmac quarry off Buckingham Hill Road.
Brian Martin informed us that both he and Paula are on the new board of governors of East Tilbury Infant and Junior school who are working towards merging from two separate schools to one school and the new governing body is the first step.
November would also see the decision being made regarding the new Thames Crossing it is looking likely that it would be Option C which would have the biggest impact to our area.
Date of Next Meeting – 31st October at 7.30 (although it was originally planned for 24th October but subsequently changed back to the 31st)
Attachment to September Minutes
Ash tree 168, has a windblown limb that is now caught in a hawthorn, whilst safe at the moment this limb will need to be section felled by a tree climber to get it on the ground, if suitable we can leave the trunk in large sections to avoid the material being moved around the site, normally brash would be left to rot down in situ, however, it is a small wood and if preferred the brash can be burnt
The TNP work partywill help with the clearance after wards
This same ash tree has a limb which is showing signs of significant rot, and holes, it therefore has good potential as a bat hibernaculum, in order to make the tree safe but maintain its ecological interest we are proposing to remove 3 younger limbs from above the main stem in question, this will reduce the weight significantly and extend the life of the more interesting lower pillar, again this will require aerial tree work. As above the brash can be left in situ or burnt
Ash tree 78
This ash stool has a large limb that leans over the path showing significant signs of rot, if it were to fall it would go directly onto the path, the simplest way of dealing with this is to cut at the base, however, we could try and leave some standing timber, however, this inevitably will get unsafe by which point, it may have good bat hibernacula potential, which will make its management more difficult, so I recommend that we cut at the base
Ash tree 153
The windblown limb that blocks the original footpath route needs to be cleared
The limb that is above the footpath has significant growth on it, we want to reduce the amount of timber on this limb as we believe the amount of growth currently on this limb will cause it to rip off, i.e. the work will extend the life of this limb
Deadwood,
There are some issues with deadwood around the education area, we will try and remove with a pruning saw. Deadwood is an issue here as we are undertaking educational activities sin this area, we are asking people to sit for extended periods in this area and therefore the risk of being hit by a falling piece of dead wood is greater than if you were just walking through
Future work
We want to undertake some coppicing of the willow trees behind the pond, many of the willows are splitting and falling, by coppicing, we will create healthy regrowth. We would look to cut about 12 trees down, annually, as part of a rotation. This will create a diversity in age and structurewithin this area and should benefit species within the wood.
Lisa Smart
The board of trustees for Thameside Nature Park Ltd has, in the past, been chosen because of their knowledge of the history of the area and, in some cases, their experience of working either with the EWT or the original Cory Environmental Trust in Thurrock (created as a charity under the Landfill Tax legislation) which financed the building of the Visitor Centre. However, anyone who is able to bring managerial skills, professional knowledge or the ability to support the staff at the centre is welcome to apply to become a director/trustee of TNP.
TNP employs one member of staff, namely the Senior Warden and Team Leader, whilst all other staff either full time on the site or occasional visitors from the Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) are employed by EWT. The visitor centre is also owned and run by EWT.
TNP is supported by investment income from a trust that was set up with monies provided by the Cory Environmental Ltd (the landfill operator) a requirement under the terms of their license and planning permission. This trust which provides funds for the board of TNP is called The Mucking Investment Trust. It is entirely separate from TNP although the trust can only use their funds to pay monies over to TNP. The board of TNP has no control over the Mucking Investment Trust, which is run by a completely independent set of Trustees.
The TNP board are responsible for the land holdings which form the TNP Nature Park, but not the visitor centre or the land it sits upon but delegates supervisory management to EWT. In return the TNP board pays a management fee for the services provided by EWT. The running costs for the visitor center and the retail operation within the centre are met by EWT.
Renae Laybourn
Hello all,
Apologies for missing you, there has always been a commitment come up on a Thursday such as cubs, scouts, evening talks etc.
First things first, we’ve had a cracking summer with over 70 events with more than 676 community members attending. This has also included nights out for cubs and scouts groups participating in bug hunting, bat nights, den building, bush craft skills and bird/ hedgehog themed activities. I’ve managed to get out to 7 local groups to lead presentations about the park, our future plans and developments with the team, the centre and our park. These have included Thurrock over 50’s group, Thurrock over 60’s group, The Salvation Army, Thurrock Council and Langdon Horticultural Society. There are still 3 more booked between now and Christmas and as the word gets out, more people are welcoming us to spread the message about Thameside Nature Park.