Many residents in Thornwood Road have informed me about an abandoned car which has been left blocking the pavement, sticking out into the busy road causing larger vehicles to cross into the path of oncoming traffic and obstructing the view of residents trying to get out of Wintry Wood.
It is with pleasure I can report that this car has been removed today thanks to the efforts of Essex County Council’s Highways office, Epping Forest District Council’s parking office and Essex Police. A great example of what working together can achieve!
Once again this week, the area surrounding our town’s War Memorial in Church Hill has been damaged by lorries who use the small road around the memorial as a place to turn.
In the last two months there has been six vehicles to get stuck on the green, often damaging the stone path leading to the memorial.
Epping Town Council are committed to improving the rather sorry state of E
pping’s War Memorial and its immediate surroundings. As such, it is reaching out to District and County Council colleagues, as well as the Corporation of the City of London (who own the green on which the memorial sits) in an attempt to draw-up a plan for improvement. Further updates on this important area of our town will follow in due course…
Many of the emails and letters I receive from Epping residents relate to what we refer to as ‘highways issues’. These range from potholes, to street lights, to kerb drops, to blocked drains to bus shelters, to footpaths, to road markings and signs right the way through to overgrown hedges.
All highways issues are the responsibility of Essex County Council and as a way of helping you to report issues you may have or have noticed within the community, they have recently launched a new section to their website to help speed up the process of getting problems logged and sorted. To visit the site, please click here.
Alternatively, you can contact a member of our local Highways Office by calling 0845 603 7621 or by emailing highways.westarea@essex.gov.uk. Finally, you can write to them at: Warwick House, Roydon Road, Harlow, Essex, CM19 5DX.
Further to my earlier article re
garding the state of the disabled toilets at Bakers Lane car park in Epping, I have now had the opportunity to draw this matter to the attention of Epping Town Council. Ironically, I am unable to attend Council meetings at the moment having recently had an operation myself, which has temporarily left me reliant on a wheelchair / crutches, but Members discussed this matter in my absence!
To give you some background on this matter, the Town Council took over the toilet block 4 years ago when Epping Forest District Council installed a new automatic toilet (which is accessible for those with disabilities and located right next to the block of toilets). The original toilets were going to be demolished but the Town Council believed that Monday Market users may have suffered from the limited capacity of the one automatic toilet, which many people are wary of using, so decided to obtain a lease and take over the management of the toilet block to allow the public a free traditional facility.
When I received Penny Pepper’s complaint, I called for an immediate review of the facilities which showed that the toilets were far from new, however, they are being cleaned on a daily basis and are opened early in the morning and closed at night and that the units are maintained in serviceable order (pictures displayed) in spite of considerable vandal problems.
From Ms. Pepper’s YouTube video, I notice that a previous user neglected to flush the toilet. I also noted there was aged signage reading ‘INVALID’, which has since been removed at my request. The video does, however, reveal a toilet role in the holder, a correctly positioned and adequate toilet seat and a lack of rubbish on the ground. Soap is provided, lighting levels are adequate and a hand dryer is in good working order.
Undoubtedly the toilets are in need of refurbishment, but given Council‘s belief that the facilities meet an acceptable standa
rd and that there is a more modern alternative just next door (as well as facilities available in Café Unico where Ms. Pepper had been) it was Council’s belief that there should be no further action in this matter. Of course, if funding were freely available, it would be very desirable to do a complete refurbishment and to replace the stained stainless steel equipment, the worn floor tiles and old fashioned wall tiles, but given the strained economic climate and the long ‘wish list’ of the people of Epping, there are no immediate plans in place to carry out this work.
For information, the total amount spent on the toilet block during the 2008 financial year was £6,199.00, which included some repair work for the roof work which was vandalised.
Local resident, Penny Pepper has today drawn to my attention, via the Epping Forest Guardian, the disgraceful state of the disabled toilets at Bakers Lane car park and has created an excellent video to show what she experienced recently, which can be viewed here.
The toilet is operated by Epping Town Council and as such I have agreed to raise the item at our Council meeting tomorrow night to see what immediate action can be taken to make the required ‘basic standards’ improvements.
As Miss Pepper has said, "It’s not just people in wheelchairs that use these toilets, Epping has a lot of elderly people, they need bars to hold onto and a hygienic place to leave walking sticks."
There is also a sign above the toilet door which reads "Invalid", a term previously used for disabled people, means useless, which simply must be removed!
I will report back with progress on this issue.
