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Communicate with your residents, save a tree, welcome in a new age with details of the *cough* recently launched Wivenhoe Town Council website.

Yep - the Autumn edition of the WTC newsletter is currently competing with the rush of early Christmas cards for attention on the doormats of Wivenhoe. And with the new website now in place, maybe - just maybe - the final tree has been felled in keeping residents informed on all the hyperlocal council activity?

WTC takes communication seriously - *very* seriously. I soon realised this when plans for the *cough* recently launched WTC website were put in place over the summer months. There remains much misunderstanding as to what the specific remit and roles of the council is. The Autumn newsletter hopefully helps to address this.

Leading with details of the new website, we learn that:

“Wivenhoe has a new council website: www.wivenhoetowncouncil.co.uk, that will give residents a modern easy to use site that keeps everyone up to date on town council business.

The old Encyclopedia site is still available as before [hurrah!] on www.wivenhoe.gov.uk, though council items will gradually be removed over the coming months, so that this will eventually have non Council items only as well as providing archive for clubs and individuals.”

With a challenging year ahead (budgets, building work and Jubilee bunting) communication with our council is essential. I still love the traditional pub gossip form of communication, but sometimes you just need the official stamp of online approval and hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Rumours of the old police station houses becoming a council lap-dancing club are sadly untrue.

And so back to the newsletter, and back to the Jubilee - hurrah! I think…

“Plans are already afoot to celebrate this event. So far in the planning stage:

2nd June - Art on the Railings in the churchyard

2nd June - Diamond Jubilee Ball

3rd June - Church Thanks Giving Service at St Mary’s

4th June - Family Day at the KGV

5th June - free for residents to arrange their own street parties or other events.”

Art on the Railings is on my radar; I never could turn down a ball. Street parties are, um, right up my street.

Volunteers, as ever are needed. The good Town Clerk can be contacted via the website. Oh - and did someone mention a Wivenhoe Jubilee jigsaw? Jubilation, joyous, jolly good work, etc.

And so what of that lap dancing club?

“The pair of police houses in the High Street have been a familiar sight for generations of Wivenhoe residents. Gradual changes in the style of policing have resulted in the loss of the traditional village bobby.

Clearly the land has crucial strategic importance for Wivenhoe. The potential to combine with existing facilities and create a lasting and useful asset for the people of Wivenhoe is enormous.

The Town Council has therefore entered into detailed negotiations with Essex Police with a view to purchasing the plot on behalf of the town. A formal offer of sale has been agreed and the arrangements are on track to meet a target completion date of March 2012.”

The purchase of any property is never simple. Dealing with the long - or even short - arm of the law adds complications, especially so when cuts are in place. Securing the properties for municipal purposes has to be a good move.

But who pays for all of this? Not directly related to the purchase of the police houses, but it is good to see that the classic you scratch my back form of bartering is in place when dealing with predatory developers:

Developers Pay for Amenities

“Recent work b WTC has helped release development monies for three much needed causes. What happens normally is that contributions from development (S106 money) can only be allocated to facilities that fall within the ward of that development. WTC Councillors were concerned that contributions from the major developments, such as Cooks Shipyard, should be available to all the residents of Wivenhoe.”

The town suffers by a fault of a geographic quirk in being very much a North / South divide. Developments down at the bottom don’t often balance with the needs of the folk up at The Cross. Our four Colchester Borough Councillors have now forgotten party lines and had their heads banged together, so to speak, by WTC and singed up to:

“Work together across ward boundaries for the good of the people of Wivenhoe with regard to the spending of Section 106 and CIL funds. Preferably, monies should be spent in the ward where they are generated. However, where it can be demonstrated that the benefits will reach and include the residents of the donating ward, then the monies can justifiably be spent in the adjoining ward.”

Which doesn’t quite mean that Rollerworld mark II is coming to The Cross via Cook’s filthy wonga - which is a shame, as I’m sure you would all agree. But boundaries are fluid and flexible, and so too are our Borough Cllr’s.

Which is a thought that you don’t want to spend too much time pondering…

And so what of Cook’s?

Oh Lordy…

“This project grinds on slowly and during recent months we have been made aware that many residents, especially those new to the town, are not fully informed with regard to WTC’s responsibilities.”

These are then explained:

“Berthing facilities for up to six Wivenhoe fishing vessels in the wet dock; accommodation for a fisherman’s store and public toilet with facilities for disabled; a public slipway; a public dinghy park, a public car park for visitors, an open space and play area.”

But it’s not all plain sailing down by the banks of the Colne:

“Unfortunately, any supporting funds to manage these facilities were not forthcoming in spite of efforts by WTC at the time. Your Town Council have been negotiating, with professional legal advice, the legal terms of the lease. WTC is obliged to sign those leases but some terms were totally unacceptable.”

Ouch.

New in Brief covers Speedwatch - a simple enough premise that has somehow managed to get rather bonkers *ahem* elsewhere… - the new 101 non-emergency police number and confirmation that a zebra crossing will finally be put in place opposite the Co-op.

I hear that plans for a grand Abbey Road style photoshoot featuring the four Borough Cllr’s will formally open the crossing. I know which Cllr best resembles Ringo. Pictures to follow on the new WTC website…