Yesterday’s Financial Times featured an interview with former Epping resident Griff Rhys Jones. He wasn’t very complimentary about the town:

His teens were spent in Epping, Essex, which he found “excruciatingly suburban … A high street full of shoe shops and very, very quiet streets where people look behind curtains at people who arrive”. He found it claustrophobic, vowing to get as close to the centre of London as possible: “I’m not a very sit-still sort of person. I tend to think ‘oh, let’s go out for lunch now; let’s go do this now’ or ‘what shall we do tonight?’.”

The shoe shops have all now gone but most streets are still pretty quiet – which I think is how most local people like it.

The attraction of Epping to many residents is that they can relish the shiny lights of London along the Central Line and also cherish the ability to return home to a quieter location with countryside on the doorstep.

These are the revised refuse and recycling collection dates over the Spring bank holiday period:

• Monday 31 May –> Tuesday 1 June
• Tuesday 1 June –> Wednesday 2 June
• Wednesday 2 June –> Thursday 3 June
• Thursday 3 June –> Friday 4 June
• Friday 4 June –> Saturday 5 June

Back to normal on Monday 7 June.

These are the revised refuse and recycling collection dates over the Easter bank holiday period:

• Monday 3 May –> Tuesday 4 May
• Tuesday 4 May –> Wednesday 5 May
• Wednesday 5 May –> Thursday 6 May
• Thursday 6 May –> Friday 7 May
• Friday 7 May –> Saturday 8 May

Back to normal on Monday 10 May.

These are the revised refuse and recycling collection dates over the Easter bank holiday period:

• Good Friday 2 April –> Saturday 3 April

• Easter Monday 5 April –> Tuesday 6 April
• Tuesday 6 April –> Wednesday 7 April
• Wednesday 7 April –> Thursday 8 April
• Thursday 8 April –> Friday 9 April
• Friday 9 April –> Saturday 10 April

Back to normal on Monday 12 April.

Epping Forest district council set its budget last night (meeting papers available here). When I last wrote about the budget I said I hoped there would be an opportunity to reduce the planned council tax increase below the 1.5 per cent rise discussed at the cabinet sub-committee meeting.

Thanks to a bit of work by council officers, which was shared with all groups, we were able to confirm that a council freeze this year would not put the council’s medium term financial strategy or its financial stability at risk. After a close look at the latest figures – especially by Ongar councillor Derek Jacobs and me – the Liberal Democrats were able to put forward a budget amendment incorporating a council tax freeze: i.e. a district council tax rise of 0%.

There is often an assumption in local government that council tax should always increase, but the Lib Dem group felt strongly that Epping Forest residents deserved a break from relentless council tax rises. Yesterday’s inflation figures highlighted how much household budgets are under pressure at the moment because of VAT and fuel increases. Thanks to the millions of pounds that the council has stashed away in its reserves, we were able to propose the freeze without cutting into services

Unfortunately the Conservatives (and the other groups) were determined to stick to their council tax increase so our council tax freeze was voted down. It may be some consolation to residents that the 1.5 increase agreed is still less than the 2.5 per cent increase proposed at the start of the budget process.

The district council’s annual budget-setting process is nearly complete. I will be at meetings to discuss the budget papers tonight and on Thursday before the full council meets to debate and agree the final version on Tuesday 16 February.

Two years ago Liberal Democrat councillors unsuccessfully argued for a lower council tax rise than the Conservatives set. We would have argued for a freeze in the council tax last year if it hadn’t been for uncertainty about the money the council lost by investing in an Icelandic owned back (the final figure turned out to be £700,000).

This year the budget has been prepared on the assumption of a 2.5% increase in council tax, but I was pleased to see that tonight’s papers also show the implications of a smaller 1.5% increase. They demonstrate that a lower council tax rise is possible without putting the council’s medium term financial strategy at risk – exactly as the Lib Dems have argued previously. I hope the Conservatives on the committee tonight choose the lower increase, and I think they should look to go lower if possible given the financial pressure that many residents are under.

Read the rest of this entry.

The timetable for the Epping Parking Review has slipped again. I now understand that the Traffic Regulation Orders (official notices from the county council advertising the formal proposals) will probably be published in early February. As Janet and I reported in the most recent Epping Focus leaflet, the main way residents will know about this is from notices attached to lamposts.

Residents will be able to inspect the full proposals by looking at Essex County Council’s website or at Epping Library.

The links on the left of this page give outline details of what we expect to happen.

Eagle eyed pedestrians using Cottis Lane will have spotted a small notice outside Club 195. It advertises the fact that the club is applying for a new licence and that ‘Interested Parties’ can comment on the application by writing to the district council. (Click on the photo to read the full text.)

The district council revoked Club 195’s licence in October because of concerns about crime and disorder. The closure seems to have led to a reduction in late night noise, litter and disorder in the middle of Epping and has been generally welcomed by most (but not all) residents I have spoken to.

The new application is for:

the provision of regulated entertainment and late night refreshment at the premises on Monday to Saturday from 8 am until 2 am and an additional one hour on notable days.

I assume ‘notable days’ to mean special occasions such as New Years Eve. The previous licence allowed the club to open seven days a week from 11 am until 4 am. The main differences are therefore:

Read the rest of this entry.

I was able to make time on Friday afternoon to go for a good tramp around Epping and Coopersale’s frozen streets (and to drop off a final few Focus leaflets).

The effects of the snow are showing up in the form of at least one broken street sign and rapidly deteriorating road surfaces (it would have helped if those particular potholes had been repaired when they first appeared many weeks ago), which I have now reported.

I also did a circuit around Swaines Green and then later walked across the fields along the Essex Way to Coopersale. Wrapped up warmly and with the sun out it was a great feeling – which I appreciate is absolutely no consolation to anyone unable to venture out and therefore shivering at home.

The most impressive snowman I found lurked in Brickfield Road, complete with clementine nose and eyes of coal. More worrying were the two doors elsewhere that I knocked on to tell the inhabitants they had left their keys in their outside locks. Perhaps they had been rushing inside to get out of the cold.

Thankfully, despite predictions, there has been very little snowfall over Friday and Saturday, so the busy roads have been clear of snow. It’s a different story on the side streets.

Recycling and waste collection

The slight change in weather meant the refuse and recycling crews were able to make some collections on Friday but there are still roads that the 20 tonne trucks can’t safely manouvre down and some big piles of sacks awaiting collection as a result. Here’s hoping any snow we get today (Sunday) won’t settle.

The district council’s advice remains to put your rubbish out as normal and it will be collected eventually. Snow update information from the district council is here and should be updated on Monday.

Gritting

It isn’t clear yet whether the county council will be able to do a full gritting run before the start of the new working week. Updates should appear on the county council’s website here.

A quick pointer to the district council’s snow update page, which is now being updated pretty regularly.

Waste and recycling collections

The bad news is that waste and recycling collections were suspended completely today because of accidents. (I dread to think how long it will now take to get back to normal. There are roads in Buckhurst Hill that haven’t received a wheelie bin collection since early December.)

Pavements

However as a result our pavements are finally receiving some attention as waste collection staff have been made available to grit shopping centres and car parks. There’s been no specific mention of pavements leading to transport hubs or pavements near schools so I’ve followed this up.

Gritting

At a Local Highways Panel meeting six weeks ago Essex County Council told us that it had record quantities of salt in store for this winter - far more than it actually expected to use. I was therefore concerned to learn that it is already cutting back on its gritting programme for the reasons set out here. That link also gives details of the roads that will still be treated.

In Epping the only road included is the High Road. This is really bad news for heavily used roads which are usually gritted like Lindsey Street, Station Road and Bower Hill, which could be treacherous by morning. The county council expects to be able to return to its usual gritting programme on Sunday evening.

Finally

The local media is covering the snow episode (I don’t think we can yet call it a crisis) assiduously. BBC Essex’s essential information page contains some useful links and should be authoritative about school closures. Plenty of news also at Everything Epping Forest and the Epping Forest Guardian.